Betray Me Once, Shame On You
by Grykon
Summary: AU 38.001 Please Read Graduation - Prequel Chapters 1 - 32 as they set up this story. This story picks up after Walter finds out about CP. Previously, Collins, still seething with his desire for revenge against Walter for his supposed betrayal, with the help of Florence has set Walter up for a lot of pain. The characters and basis of the show belong to their copyright owner(s)
1. Chapter 1

**Welcome to 'Betray Me Once, Shame On You'. If you haven't, you might want to read Graduation - Prequel chapters 1-32 as it sets the stage for this story. To the Adventure! -Tim**

* * *

Walter stood there in the outer office after the door had closed behind Centipede Partners after they entered. Cabe stared into Walter's eyes and he could almost see the building blocks that made Walter Walter crumbing, toppling and falling. "Walt, son, its okay son, let's go back to the Garage."

* * *

Paige stood just inside the office her hand to her mouth, at first because of Walter's attitude she was happy he seemed put out about them forming their own company but as the door closed behind her there was something else she saw in his eyes, 'God, the look in his eyes when he realized the truth. Cabe warned me, he told me. Why didn't I listen to him? Oh God, what have I done, I got to go say something.' She thought to herself and as she turned and grabbed the doorknob Toby grabbed her hand. She looked up into his eyes and he shook his head no. "Get your hand off mine, now." Paige demanded.

Toby glared at her, "Beetlejuice, take a seat and get us this job." Toby whispered to her. A tear escaped her eye as she slowly nodded and sat down.

* * *

Walter stood there, unresponsive, unblinking, Florence reached out and took his left hand and gently pulled against him and he slowly took a step and then another and then another. Each time she stopped pulling he became immobile again. Gently she led him step by step until they arrived at the SUV. They struggled to get him into the SUV.

Cabe kept looking in the rearview mirror at Walter but he just sat there looking straight ahead at the back of Florence's headrest. Florence half turned and looked back at Walter, "Is he going to be okay?"

Cabe swore, "I don't know, damn it, I told her she needed to tell him about them starting that company. Damn it!" He smacked his hand against the steering wheel.

Walter's head moved and he looked at Cabe, "W-What? You knew? You knew that the others, that Paige, that they created a new company to compete against me? You knew and you didn't think you should tell me, to warn me that the woman I love, that walked out on me was stabbing me in the back? That those I thought of as family were helping her to stab me? What is wrong with you?"

A tear ran down his cheek, "Son, I tried to get her to tell you."

Florence nodded her head, "I was there, he did tell her, warned her how much this was going to hurt you."

Walter turned to look at Florence, "You too? After what I did to protect Ted from my pain, shielded you from prosecution, you couldn't be bothered to tell me? You both helped them betray me?" He screamed, "Stop the car."

Cabe shook his head no. But as he slowed to stop at a light Walter hit his seat belt release and quickly left the SUV and started walking down the street. Cabe swore and pulled to the side and jumped out of the SUV. He ran up to him, "Walt, stop, listen to me."

Cabe grabbed his arm, "Get off me!" Walter screamed and shoved Cabe hard enough to knock him to the ground and he turned and continued walking away.

Florence jumped out and helped Cabe up and they watched as he continued to walk down the street. Cabe looked at Florence, "We'll follow him". Florence nodded and walked back and closed the back door and got back into the front seat as Cabe jumped back into the driver's side and started following Walter.

* * *

Paige and the guys left the building, she felt miserable, she'd already threw up in the bathroom before they left, the others were celebrating winning the contract for the programming job and it was pissing her off.

"We did it, we actually beat him!" Toby exclaimed. And the best part to the three of them wasn't just the look on Walter's face when he realized that they had somehow already secured the programming job he was suppose to bid on the following week but that they formed their own company against him.

"Paige, we've got to go out and eat to celebrate this victory." Sylvester told her.

Paige angrily refused, "I'll drop your asses off at the office and you can go celebrate if you want, I'm not about to go celebrating what just happened to Walter."

Toby sat up on the edge of the backseat behind her and whispered into her ear, "Beetlejuice, you will go with us to celebrate."

Paige became incensed "Screw you Toby, I am not going out to celebrate what we just did. Didn't you see the look on Walter's face? You can feel good about it if you want but it makes me sick." Paige screamed at him.

Toby sat back in the seat his eyes large in shock.

"His look was the best part Paige, come on." Sylvester told her.

Paige glared at Sylvester, "You want to walk back to the office from here?"

Sylvester shook his head no.

"I never should have let you guys push me into this stupidity." Paige fumed.

They all sat there in silence as Paige kept ranting as she drove them back to the office, she couldn't stand what had happened and she just had to get them out of her car as fast as possible. She was about as sick of them as she could possibly be.

* * *

It was ten miles back to the Garage from the intersection Walter left the SUV at and they followed Walter the entire distance. Every step after three miles began to affect him, his gait changed as his feet began to develop sores from the unaccustomed long distance walking within his dress shoes. He never once turned or acknowledged that they were there. It took him a little more than five hours to make the journey; his shirt was soaked with sweat by the time he reached the Garage. He unlocked the door and walked on in as Cabe parked in his parking spot.

* * *

Paige was pacing around her front room she felt so sick to her stomach, nothing was helping it. She was even more pissed that Toby thought he could tell her what to do as if she didn't have the right to feel bad for what they did to Walter in the office. 'And what the hell was that Beetlejuice even about?' She pondered.

* * *

As they walked up to the door they heard Walter scream and then heard a large bang and then another and another. Cabe drew his gun and pushed in the door and entered. They heard the bangs coming from back past the kitchen area. They heard glass shatter and then more banging and they moved back and finally found him with a sledgehammer beating on what was left of his car screaming over and over. Cabe holstered his gun and they watched in helplessness as Walter continued to beat on the car and scream. After each hit they started to noticed the time interval between hits was increasing and the sound of the hammer blow was decreasing as Walter was physically running out of strength. Finally the last time he tried to lift the hammer he couldn't hold the handle any longer and the hammer fell to the ground smeared with his blood. As it fell it was followed by Walter, the broken glass tearing through his pants, biting into the flesh of his legs and they could hear him crying, not from the physical pain, that pain didn't even register upon his mind. Florence thought the wails of sorrow and pain the other day was bad, this was worse. Walter was completely in total despair and agony.

Cabe could see his hands were bleeding, his skin unaccustomed to that level of physical exertion, the handle of the sledgehammer had torn through his flesh like toilet paper. Cabe grabbed a bunch of paper towels and quickly moved over, kneeling down next to Walter and began to wrap Walter's hands; tears ran down Cabe's cheeks as he became completely cognizant of the full force of the pain Walter was in. As he finished wrapping his hands Walter turned and threw his arms around Cabe and began crying even harder as he clung to Cabe, his body trembling as he tried seeking some form of solace. Cabe sat down and just held his son as he wailed in misery.

* * *

Florence ran out of the Garage, unable to deal with the pain and sorrow that she helped, in part, to cause. She turned to run to her side of the building but then remembered how the sound carried and she stood helplessly on the corner. She could still hear Walter and so she ran across the street and stood by the new stop sign that had finally been put up. She pulled out her phone and called Ted.

"Hey Florence, how are you good looking?" Ted answered his phone.

"Ted, oh my God, Ted, help me please, I need you." Florence cried.

"Whoa, slow down, what's going on?" Ted asked as he grabbed his jacket and ran for the elevator.

"It's Walter, oh my God, Ted, he just found out about Centipede Partners, he is so distraught. His cries, oh Ted, I can't handle his cries."

Ted hit the elevator button and then turned and ran for the stairs, "What about Cabe?"

"Cabe is with him Ted. Oh Ted, the blood, his hands, Oh God," Florence told him.

"Okay sweetie, it'll be okay, I'll be there as fast as I can." Ted told her as he ran down the stairs two and three at a time.

"Ted, thank you, I'll be across the street by the stop sign," Florence told him as she hung up the phone. She stared back at the Garage almost convinced she could still hear Walter's cries.

"Hello Florence, miss me?" Collins said.

Florence turned and her eyes went wide as she saw Collins right behind her. She went to scream but Collins shoved his hand up to her face with a cloth soaked in chloroform. She struggled for a moment before passing out. Freddie their homeless friend was over by the underpass and saw what was going on and yelled and came running over. "Leave her alone, get away from her!" Freddie yelled waving his arms as he ran towards them.

Collins looked up, surprised at first but he recovered and pulled out a gun, Freddie dove headfirst into him knocking him down; the gun went sliding across the street as they both tumbled around. They both scrambled for the gun but Collins managed to recover the gun and he struggled with Freddie as he tried to take the gun away from him and then BANG and Freddie just stared at Collins, his eyes twitched and a tear slid down his cheek as Collins pushed him over.

* * *

Cabe's head turned as Walter's came up, tears still running down his cheeks, "Cabe?" Walter questioned.

Cabe nodded, "Gun shot." Cabe said as he released Walter and struggled to get up and then ran for the front door.

* * *

Freddie had his hands pressed in against his abdomen as blood began oozing up between his fingers and hands. Collins quickly got up and drug Florence over to his car and pushed her into the backseat and took off quickly.

Freddie laid there trying to find the strength to call for help when he heard the Garage door bang open, his head turned and he saw Cabe and he raised his one arm while maintaining pressure on his stomach. Cabe saw his outstretched arm, "Oh Lord, Walter, its Freddie!"

Cabe ran quickly over to him and saw the blood and he knelt down and pushed one hand down on top of Freddie's other hand as he pulled his phone out and hit 911 and dial, "911 Operator, what's the nature of your emergency?"

"This is agent Cabe Gallo Homeland badge 2835; I need an ambulance immediately for a shooting victim at my location." Cabe yelled into his phone.

Walter came running across the street with the first aid kit and he quickly pulled Freddie's shirt up and pulled on some vinyl gloves and pulled out some gauze and bundled it up and gave it to Cabe to press in on the wound. Walter asked, "Freddie, who did this, who shot you?"

"D-don't know, dirty-blondish hair, beard, glasses. He attacked, F-Florence. P-put her in a car and t-t-took off." Freddie told them pointing down at the underpass.

"You hang on there Freddie, help is on the way." Cabe told him.

Walter looked around and saw the cameras that Ted had installed to watch the area were still there, "Cabe, the surveillance cameras, are they still operational?"

Cabe looked up, "Here take over holding pressure," Cabe told him.

After Walter took over Cabe pulled up Katharine Cooper's number and called. "Katharine, we've got a problem here at Scorpion, a man's been shot and Florence has been kidnapped. Are the cameras here still recording? We need to ID the car and track it down. We believe the culprit is Mark Collins."

Ted arrived a few minutes after the ambulance and he ran up to the stop sign showing his badge to get past the police line. "Cabe, what's happening?"

"Oh Lord Ted, I'm so sorry, Florence has been kidnapped, we think its Collins. Freddie tried to help her and got shot. From his description it sounds like Collins, and Katharine is having the video feed from your cameras examined to gather whatever data they have recorded." Cabe told him.

"Oh God no, please, where's Walter, Florence called to say he was in a real mess from finding out about Centipede Partners." Ted told him.

Cabe nodded, "He is, we came running out a few moments after we heard the gun shot but Collins and Florence were gone and we were trying to save Freddie, but he's inside the Garage right now trying his best to figure out where Collins is."

Ted saw they were getting ready to load Freddie into the ambulance and he quickly stepped over to the gurney and looked down at Freddie and took his hand, "Thank you for trying to help Florence." Freddie was fairly out of it but managed to nod his head.

They took Freddie away as Ted and Cabe moved across to the Garage and entered. They found Walter sitting at his desk in front of this laptop quickly scrolling through the data file now that his algorithm had finished repairing it. "Walter, please tell me you got something."

Walter paused long enough to look up and saw Ted with Cabe and shook his head as he returned his attention back to the file and continued scrolling through it. Ted saw Walter with blood on his shirt and on his hands. "Walter, is that Freddie's blood or yours?" Ted asked concerned.

Walter looked down, "Both." He returned his attention to the file and continued reading and scrolling as fast as he could.

Ted started to say something but Cabe stopped him, "Let him work, you'll only slow him down and we want this solved quickly."

Ted nodded reluctantly and watched as Cabe walked into the kitchen and got a broom and dust pan and moved on back by Walter's car and began sweeping up the glass. Ted walked back and looked at the damage to the car and the sledgehammer laying there with a bloody handle and the blood on the concrete from where the glass had cut into Walter's legs. Ted looked to Cabe, "Walter?"

Cabe just nodded sadly, "Now I know what Collins was talking about the other night when he was talking about wanting Walter to feel betrayal like he did. I just figured he meant them all walking out on him, but finding out they started that damn company to compete against him, that was serious betrayal. I should have warned Walter damn it, but I was sure Paige would finally tell him. But I should have known Toby had his hooks too deep into her mind."

* * *

Florence was groggy, the sickening sweet smell was mostly gone but there were still lingering traces on her skin. "So Florence, tell me, how's Walter doing? He should have discovered that his precious waitress has now completely abandoned him and betrayed him by forming a company to compete against him." Collins gloated.

"He's a real mess," Florence said trying to focus.

"You have no idea how good that sounds to me, now with him so distraught I wonder; who's going to help you? You think Ted is up for finding you?" Collins asked her.


	2. Chapter 2

Paige's phone rang and she picked it up and saw 'Toby' she fumed but hit answer, "What do you want?" She demanded.

"Well you took off so fast I was just calling to make sure you were okay." Toby said a little defensively.

"Why wouldn't I be? I just love it when someone tries to tell me what to do you jackass." Paige spit out at him.

"Well, umm, Beetlejuice, I really think you should calm down." Toby told her.

"What the freak is that even suppose to mean? Why do you keep saying Beetlejuice? And I really don't give a shit what you think period let alone what you think I should do." Paige yelled and then hung up on him.

'Paige needs reconditioning tomorrow,' Toby thought.

* * *

"Damn it; if it wasn't for Carlson then Rusty would have been here and could have protected Florence." Cabe swore as he sweep up the last of the glass into the dustpan Ted was holding.

Cabe's phone rang, 'Katharine Cooper' the display read and he hit answer. "Katharine, is there any good news? I see, what about the LAPD traffic cams? Blank? Again? Damn it, thank you Katharine." Cabe shook his head at Ted.

"Hey, Walter was able to bypass the block the other day; maybe he can do it again?" Ted asked. Ted ran over to Walter's desk, "Walter, the LAPD traffic cams are coming up blank again, can you work your skills and see if you can get the footage and track his car?" Ted pleaded.

Walter looked up and stared at Ted for a moment and then nodded and minimized his datafile and pulled up his web browser and hacked into the LAPD system and began hacking the traffic cams and pointed towards the monitor tree and they saw the camera at the other end of the overpass and they saw the car turn left off the street and drive East. But the video feed went blank again as Collins's face came up on the monitors again, "Hey Walter how you doing? Do you understand my pain having been betrayed by your pathetic waitress?" Collins told him while laughing. "I thought you said I was going to regret challenging you? So far I feel pretty good about it. Is the boyfriend there, how's he doing?" Collins whispered the last question.

"You sick son of a bitch," Ted spat.

"Tsk, tsk, you shouldn't speak like that in front of your lady," Collins teased him as he turned so they could see Florence tied to a chair. "I think some punishment is in order don't you?" Collins asked as he stepped back a couple of feet and then slapped Florence hard across her face.

"I'm going to kill you Collins!" Ted roared.

Collins laughed incessantly.

Cabe grabbed Ted and whispered, "You're playing right into his hands, calm down Ted, let Walter handle this."

"What do you want for Florence's safe release?" Walter asked.

Collins grinned, "What makes you think I want anything for her? She's quite the looker, maybe I might just keep her for myself."

Cabe grabbed Ted and put his hand over his mouth as he struggled.

"You've never cared about carnality before in your life so stop playing stupid games Mark, what do you want?" Walter asked again.

"Actually nothing, other than some enjoyment torturing you guys. I have all I ever wanted; now I'm thinking I will close up shop here and move to some nice tropical climate and retire." Collins told him in all honesty.

"Then give Florence back and go." Walter told him.

"Oh, that reminds me, I do still have one thing left and that's that insufferable shrink." But I don't need to see my revenge on him, it'll happen all on its own." Collins told him.

"What's going to happen to Toby?" Walter asked.

Collins smiled, "Oh no, I am not going to let the cat out of the bag, but I can tell you one of two things will happen and personally I really don't care which. That's not completely true, I do prefer the one over the other but I'll take either. Well I have things to pack and I need to get ready to leave, when I get to my destination I'll be sure to send you the location where you can find Florence, I do hope she is properly hydrated, I'd hate to think she'd die of thirst before you find her." Collins laughed. Collins hit a key and the video link went dead.

"Damn it," Ted screamed.

Cabe looked at Walter and saw a slight smile on his face, "Walter, what is it son?"

"I was successful in transferring a Trojan horse onto his system while we talked and I just have to activate my sniffer and it will feed me information to find him." Walter answered.

"You know where they are?" Ted asked almost pleading.

"Resolving his location now, it'll take a few minutes," Walter told him.

* * *

Walter stood up and they saw him wince as the pain of the sores on his feet radiated up his legs as he put pressure on them now that his adrenaline wore off. He slowly took a step towards the kitchen, "Kid, what are you doing? Sit down, if you want something I'll get it." Cabe told him.

Walter looked at him and nodded, "Some coffee please."

Walter slowly sat back down as Cabe moved into the kitchen, Ted followed behind him. "What's wrong with Walter?"

Cabe frowned as he whispered, "He walked ten miles back to the Garage he was so distraught at Florence and I because we didn't tell him about Centipede Partners."

Ted stared with fear at Cabe, "He's not going to hold that against Florence and not do his best is he?"

Cabe shook his head, "Walter isn't like that, trust me."

Ted's eyes narrowed as he looked at him, "What aren't you telling me Cabe?"

Cabe shook his head as he poured a cup of coffee and added creamer to it and took it over to Walter. Walter smiled and took a sip. He was watching his sniffer tool as it made its way through the internet providers searching for the IP that had been assigned to Collins's system tracking it through all the websites he tried to use to hide it. "Got you," Walter said triumphantly.

"Where is he?" Cabe asked.

Walter gave him the address as he slowly stood up and began walking slowly towards the front door. "Whoa, where do you think you are going?" Cabe asked him.

"You're going to need my help, Collins will have traps set and going in there without me will be suicide." Walter told him as he kept walking for the front door.

* * *

Ted called for back up as they climbed into Cabe's SUV, "Don't use your siren Cabe, I disabled all the cameras so he won't see us coming and we don't want him to hear us. Our best bet is to come up from the south, so stop here." He pointed at a spot 2 blocks south of the address on his GPS.

"Are you crazy? You can't walk that far, you barely made it to the car." Cabe almost yelled.

"I'll be fine; we need to go before he gets away. We need to save Florence but I would like to catch him too." Walter told him.

* * *

Cabe pulled up to the spot Walter had advised him to and they all got out of the SUV, Cabe and Ted grabbed bullet proof vests from the back of the SUV, Cabe gave one to Walter, "You stay behind me son, I mean it."

Walter shook his head, "I need to be in front so I can identify any possible traps, both of you stay behind me and do not step anywhere I haven't already stepped when we get there."

"Damn it Walter, I'm suppose to protect you, not the other way around." Cabe argued.

"I appreciate that Cabe, but this is between Collins and me. Follow my lead. Do not go around me, do not go off in a direction I am not walking, I mean it. Collins will make it very tempting to do so, so think with your head and not your emotions." Walter looked at them and they both nodded their heads.

* * *

Walter struggled but managed to walk the distance. He looked around the corner of the last building before where Collins was hold up. "Okay, he has cameras on the outside; there is no way to get in without him seeing us. There is an obvious door on the south west corner, but there is a more logical door just to the north on the west side. That's the one we go for." Walter told them.

"What makes it more logical?" Ted asked.

"You'd have to understand Collins, trust me." Walter told him.

Ted patted the door ram he had brought with him, "Fine, you just tell me which one and I'll take it down."

Walter nodded and began walking again as fast as he could.

* * *

They were about halfway to the door when Collins saw them in the video feed. He smiled, "Well, well, looks like Walter is still on top of his game. How about that Florence even though he knows you betrayed him, broke apart his precious cyclone and then withheld the fact that his former friends started a company to put his precious Scorpion out of business permanently he is still determined to save you. Man that stupid waitress really screwed him up." Collins told her.

"Don't call her that, she's a better person than you will ever be you demented sicko." Florence screamed.

Collins laughed, "Don't worry, they won't save you and if you are lucky whoever gets here after they are dead will make it down here to save you."

* * *

Walter finally made it to the door; sweat was running down his face as he struggled with the pain. He examined the door and he gestured for Cabe and Ted to move back to the sides of the door. He grimaced as he picked up a brick that was part of the old landscape and threw it at an angle and as it struck the door there was a small explosion as a shotgun went off blasting a hole through the door.

Cabe and Ted both swallowed hard as they looked at each other. Collins laughed, "Oh man that would have been so good."

Walter touched the back of his hand to the door knob and then jiggled it hard and he saw a blade fall down the backside of the door. He gestured and Ted stepped up and carefully swung the ram and busted the lock on the door and Walter pulled the door open after Ted stepped back out of the way. He carefully looked around the inside of the door using the flashlight that Cabe had on him and then he carefully stepped into the room. He reached out and turned the shotgun so it was pointed at the wall closest to it. They made it into the second room and there were three doors leading out of it. Walter shined the flashlight at all three and began to move straight across when from the doorway to the left they heard Florence scream and Ted took off running, Cabe tried to grab him and Walter told him to stop but as Ted stepped right in front of the doorway the trap in the floor activated and he fell through the opening and the floor reset.

They heard a speaker system turn on and they heard, "Well, that's one down, you got one more pawn 197, then its king against king for Ted's queen." Collins laughed

* * *

Walter led Cabe into the next room slowly as he double checked everything. Like the last room this room had three other doors out of it and he examined the floor and pointed to the door going south and stepped over and just before stepping into the doorway he stopped and saw a thin wire running across the doorway about ankle high. It was securely anchored to the doorframe. He pulled his pen out of this shirt pocket and pressed it against the wire and watched it slice the end of his pen off. He showed the pen to Cabe and Cabe ticked his head. Walter mouthed "Stay here." He walked back outside and picked up the door ram and walked back inside and walked up to the doorway and swung the ram and struck the doorframe causing the wood to splinter and the anchoring bolt sprung free as Walter dropped the ram and he cupped his hands together in pain. Once the wire quit moving around and Walter recovered from the pain he walked on in the room carefully picking up and taking the ram with him.

There was a door to the East and a set of stairs going down and Walter examined the floor and then carefully walked like he was going through the door to the East and stopped and walked on back to the South wall and then walked back to the West to stop by the stairs. Walter tilted his head and listened carefully, nodding he began examining the stairs and then lifted the ram up high and then threw it down striking the third step and watched as all the steps folded down into a ramp. "Damn son, I'm glad I listened to you." Cabe told him. Walter just smiled.

"I'm not sure my feet can take this ramp, take your belt off." Walter told him.

They both removed their belts and Walter fastened his buckle to Cabe's belt, "I'm going to sit down to slide down, I need you to keep me from just sliding straight down so I can check for traps before stepping on the floor down there."

Cabe nodded, "Wait a second, let me call Homeland." Cabe called Homeland and told them to advise the units responding that the warehouse was booby trapped in multiple ways and to exercise extreme caution. Cabe wrapped the end of the belt around his hand and held onto the banister and Walter looked at his hand and the ripped open skin. He pulled off his shirt and wrapped it around his left hand and wrapped the belt around it. Holding the flashlight in his right he grimaced as he slowly descended as Cabe fed him slack. Walter saw the ram was about ten feet out from the stairs.

Cabe had to stretch himself out to get Walter to the bottom of the ramp. The room was much bigger than the room above and he paid close attention to the floor at the bottom of the ramp and saw that it too was booby trapped. He grabbed the banister with his right hand and pulled himself to the side and then reached out with one foot and got a foothold on the side of the trap and pulled with his right hand to stand up almost passing out from the pain. He finally stood and he just stood there for a moment before swinging out away from the trap.

"Be careful, there is a trap at the bottom of the ramp. Hold on to the banister and come down." Walter said up the stairwell.

Cabe let go of the belt and took hold of the banister and carefully started sliding down when his hand got cut and he let go and began falling. Walter reached out and grabbed him with one hand while holding onto the support pole next to the stairwell and pulled him as hard as he could and Cabe swung out away from the trap and fell to the floor. Walter dropped to one knee as he grimaced from the pain in his hands and feet.

"Oh so close, how did you manage to save your last pawn Walter?" Collins asked in laughter.

Cabe recovered quickly and got up and stepped over to Walter, "Son, thank you, are you okay?" Walter nodded but Cabe could clearly see the pain he was in. "You want me to look around and you rest for a moment?" Cabe asked him. Cabe took off his jacket and ripped the lining out of it and wrapped it around his hand covering the fairly nasty cut on it.

Walter shook his head, "Just help me to stand." Walter slowly stood back up, his leg muscles trembling from the pain in his feet. But he had no choice, Ted might still be alive and there was still Florence to save and Collins still had to be captured. Walter separated the belts and handing Cabe his belt back and they both put them back on. He closed his eyes and took several big breaths and then looked around. There was only one doorway out of the room. He carefully made his way over toward it when he heard a board squeak and he froze. Walter gestured for Cabe to move back as he closed his eyes and listened closely. Not hearing any other sounds he stepped back off the board and nothing happened. Walter let out a breath of relief.


	3. Chapter 3

Walter could hear his feet really squeaking inside his shoes, and seemed to almost slip inside his shoes. Judging by the clammy wetness of his socks and shoes, his feet had to really be bleeding, couple that with his hands and the wounds on his legs, he wondered how much blood he had already lost. His eyes were tired, 'Figures, now I could sleep' he thought. He shinned the light through the doorway and shook his head trying to get his eyes to focus properly. He looked down the wall and something seemed a little different and he began walking away from the door. He stopped at one section of the wall and stared at it. He looked at an electrical box by the side of the wall and put his hand against it and pushed and as it receded the section of the wall next to it opened. He started to step through and stopped and looked back and saw the ram still lying back about twenty feet from him. He turned and walked back to it. He bent over placing his left hand against his knee and grabbed the ram with his right and pushed against his knee to stand back up and turned and walked back over to the opening and tossed the ram through making sure it hit the floor right on the other side and bounced a couple of times.

He stepped through and looked around and only saw one exit from the room straight ahead. He mentally calculated where he now stood in relation to where Ted fell through the floor and if he was right he should be somewhere behind the wall to his left. He shined the flashlight over there and saw a solid brick wall. "What is it?" Cabe asked quietly.

"If I'm right, Ted should be just behind that wall, but it looks pretty solid to me." Walter told him.

Cabe looked at him, "Son, you need to rest for a moment, sit down and let me see your feet at least." Cabe pleaded.

Walter looked around and nodded and stepped back by the door way and put his back against the wall and slid down with Cabe's help. Cabe knelt down and untied his shoes and pulled his shoes off and then his blood soaked socks. Cabe's face told Walter all he really needed to know. He unwrapped his shirt from his left hand and handed it to Cabe. Cabe took the shirt and carefully ripped it in half after slicing it with his knife. He first slid Walter's foot into the sleeve and then doubled the sleeve back around his foot and then wrapped the rest of the shirt around his foot and then pulled a sock over it and put his shoe back on. Cabe then repeated the process with Walter's other foot. Walter concentrated on trying to block out the pain when they heard the intercom turn on again and then a gunshot and Florence screamed, "Ted! Leave him alone you lunatic."

* * *

Collins laughed, "Oh look at that 197, your other pawn is still alive. Wonder how long he'll live with that bullet wound? Collins pushed his finger against the wound where he shot Ted and they heard Ted groan in pain. "Walter, how are you coming with the traps, are finding them all?" Collins laughed, "You know Walter, I think I am going to alter my travel plans. When you are all dead I'm going to go pay a visit to that worthless waitress of yours."

"Stop talking about her that way you demented freak, her pinky is a better person than you will ever be!" Florence screamed at him.

They heard a hard slap of flesh against flesh and Florence cried out in pain, "I think it's time for a muzzle for you dog." Collins told her. They heard a small scuffle, "There, that's better. Now where were we? Oh yes, I'm going to slowly torture your waitress to death in front of the little genius of hers and then I'm going to take him with me and teach him the truth about intellects like ours."

* * *

"Help me up Cabe," Walter told him.

"You need to rest a little longer. Don't play into his hands," Cabe told him.

Walter shook his head, "I'm not, he shot Ted, no telling how long Ted has. We got to find them and end this. Where the hell is your back up? We could have gotten help from Encino by now."

Cabe gave in and helped him to stand, "I wish I knew son, I just hope Carlson isn't screwing us over again."

Walter pointed at the ram, "Can you carry that for me?"

Cabe nodded and walked over and as he picked it up the pressure was removed from the plate under the floor and a timer slowly counted down three seconds and a board on the ceiling swung down and cracked Cabe in the back of the head knocking him out. "Cabe!" Walter yelled and moved over to him as quickly as he could and checked on him. Cabe had a nasty knot on the back of his head and the skin was changing color quickly. Cabe was completely out.

* * *

"Oops, did you lose your last pawn 197? So it's just king vs king in a game of winner takes all. Are you up for it?" Collins taunted him. "So since your time is almost up Walter, tell me, what is it about this normal of yours? What makes her so important to you? So important that you gave up pure logic," Collins probed.

Walter cleared his throat, "Do you really want to hear the truth to those questions? Are you willing to listen to the entire truth? And do you still remember I only speak the truth?"

"Oh, I wouldn't miss this for all the money in the world." Collins told him as he put his elbows on his desk and his chin in his hands as he watched Walter struggle on a camera.

Walter struggled to stand, "The problem Collins," Walter paused and sucked in a large volume of air, "Is you have only ever assigned value to intellect. Those of us with high IQ tend to get lost in it and we hold ourselves above others when really, we are beneath everyone. You can't see past it, you can't see that while Paige might not have the IQ we do, Paige has intelligence, charm, wit, compassion, devotion among many others. Paige has the amazing ability to combine and apply these things we look down our noses at and Paige is able to use them to calm, reassure, guide and inspire others including people like us if we open ourselves to Paige. Paige's value is incalculable because we can't quantify these things. I once only gave Paige 2% of equity in Scorpion, back when I still couldn't understand Paige's true value and now if I had the chance to do it over I would give Paige 90% because without Paige Scorpion did nothing but fail, constantly in a state of concern over finances. Paige is a fierce and loyal friend until you wrong her and then Paige can be a fierce and formidable foe and I would rather face the entire world with Paige than face Paige with the entire world."

Collins slow clapped, "Fascinating."

* * *

Walter began to move towards the only other exit of the room and shined his light into the room and slowly walked in. The room looked much like the room he just left, the brick wall to his left but this room had an exit straight ahead and to the right. "You know what this kind of reminds me of Walter, remember Zork? Hope your flashlight holds out; hate to think of you being eaten by a Grue in the dark, and hope that doesn't happen to your Fed friend." Collins laughed.

Walter saw several marks on the floor as he examined it and he took a deep breath and moved half way to the left and walked to within ten feet of the wall in front of him and then turned and walked all the way to the wall that was on his right and walked back to the doorway and looked through the doorway. Nodding he stepped on through and then almost stepped on a pressure plate on the floor. He pulled his t-shirt up and wiped the sweat off his brow and out of his eyes. He stepped around the plate and he saw there was only one exit to his left.

"Hey Walter, if you find a bucket, make sure you don't kick it." Collins laughed again.

Walter made it over to the doorway and examined it better this time and then moved in. Once he was five feet in a panel behind him slid over and sealed the exit. Suddenly there was light in his eyes and he saw a half circle of seven portals before him, Collins was standing in front of Florence with a gun pointed at Ted lying at her feet in each of them.

* * *

"Walter, it's so good to see you again. Oh my, you really don't look too good. What have you done to yourself?" Collins asked as Florence took her eyes off of Ted and looked through the opening and could see all the blood over Walter and she began crying unable to warn him with the gag in her mouth.

"I know you are probably dying with curiosity. Seven portals but clearly only one can be a true portal to me. Whichever one it is can you reason it out before Ted receives another bullet?" Collins taunted him.

Walter stood there struggling to look up but his head kept drooping down fatigue his worst enemy now. "I'm sorry Mark," Walter told him.

Collins laughed, "Begging for your life now isn't going to help Walter, you made this bed and you are going to have to lie in it."

Walter shook his head, "I'm not begging for my life, I am just sorry that you feel the way you do. I never meant for you to feel like I betrayed you. I really only tried to help you."

"You never meant for me to feel this? You threw me away Walter. You left me to suffer under the hands of those quacks." Collins nearly screamed. "Why do you think I went to all the trouble to ensure you felt every bit of pain I did?"

Walter shook his head, "I'm so sorry Mark."

"No, No," Mark shook his hand at Walter, "You don't get to apologize now for what you did."

Walter looked up at him and licked his dry lips, "I'm not Mark, I'm apologizing for this." Walter spun a quarter turn and his right hand flew up and Mark saw the gun in his hand and then he saw the muzzle flash and the glass door of the illusion shattered and pain seared into his neck as he heard the shot.

Mark dropped the gun and fell on his back and struggled trying to roll onto his side as he pressed one hand against the side of his neck. Walter dropped Cabe's gun and slowly took a step and fell to the ground. He struggled up onto his knees and crawled slowly threw the only true exit of the room. His hands and knees picking up pieces of glass and he shuddered from the pain as the pieces of glass dug deeper into him. He heard Collins coughing, gagging and sputtering on his blood whispering for help as his life blood filled his throat and spilled out onto the floor. "Walter," he choked out as Walter crawled past him to Florence.

"I told you that you would regret challenging me," Walter told him as he pulled out a pocket knife and cut through the binding on her right hand and handed her the knife as he struggled past Collins towards the computer system in the room. Florence freed herself and quickly began helping Ted by applying pressure to the bullet wound. Walter climbed up into the chair and accessed Collins's computer. First he slid a USB drive into the computer and called up his file utilities and executed a search and located all the files that contained information on the word 'Florence' and he used his eraser program to scour the data so it was irretrievable. He heard yelling from upstairs and on the camera feeds he could see Homeland agents finally on scene. He examined the files on the system and he turned on all the lights and hit the intercom.

"This is Walter O'Brien, Homeland contractor, I'm in the basement with agents Cabe Gallo, Ted Markus, Homeland contractor Florence Tipton and Terrorist Mark Collins is dead, Ted has been wounded by gunshot and Cabe has been knocked out by a trap. We need medical help but I need a few minutes to deactivate the traps."

He found a program to deactivate traps and to activate them. He ran the deactivate traps routine and he could hear various mechanisms engage and through the camera system he saw the steps reset. "Be careful but the traps should be disabled." Walter called over the intercom.

Walter thought about something Cabe had said and he executed another search but this time for 'Carlson' and a number of files pulled up and they were all audio files and he quickly sent a copy to his server at the Garage and a copy to Katharine Cooper's email and made a copy to his USB drive he removed the USB drive and put it in his pocket. He heard feet on the stairs and just as he started to turn his eyes saw something on the hard drive. He looked again and saw a file called Tobias. He clicked on it and it opened and he read about a neural implant device. As the team finally reached them Walter had read the whole file and put the USB drive back in and copied it and then put the drive back in his pocket.

Walter raised his hands as the Homeland teames moved into the room. Not taking any chances they cuffed Walter and half carried half dragged him up from the basement even though Florence protested that he wasn't a criminal and they carried him out of the building. Medics went in with the next group as the team took a body bag down with them. Katharine Cooper's SUV pulled up and she saw Walter forced to lie there on the ground in handcuffs and she grabbed the first agent and demanded he release him that instant.

"Walter, are you okay?" She looked at him tears in her eyes at how pale he was, the amount of blood he was covered in.

Katharine shouted, "We need to get this man some medical help," she pointed at Walter.

Walter smiled weakly and nodded, "It's over. Collins is dead."

They saw several agents bring a body bag out of the building and Katharine forced them to open it. She had to be sure; she smiled seeing Collins's dead eyes.

"Katharine," Walter squeaked out.

"Save your strength Walter," she told him.

He shook his head, "Your email, I found a number of audio files on Collins's computer. I sent a copy to you, they concern Carlson."

Katharine smiled, "Just like a hero, hurt and suffering, and you still think of the greater good. We'll have another medic here for you shortly." She promised him.

Walter nodded and then he heard the wheels of a gurney and saw them bring Cabe out. Katharine rushed over to his side. "He's okay Ma'am, he's going to hurt for a while and have a bad headache but he'll be okay." The medic told her.

A few minutes later the other gurney came out with Florence walking beside it holding onto Ted's hand. Katharine stepped over to them quickly, "How is he?"

"Broken ankle and bullet wound to this left shoulder, but he'll be okay." The medic told her. Katharine breathed a sigh of relief.

She walked over and had one of the agents escort her inside and she marveled at all the traps that they circumvented and who knew how many others were in other areas of the building. Forensics was coming in behind her and she told them to take special care of the computer as she looked at where Collins had taken his last breath. "Director Cooper," she heard through a radio on one of the agents.

The agent with her handed her the mic, "This is Director Cooper."

"Ma'am the third medic is here, who were they here for?" The agent asked.

Katharine became annoyed, "Walter O'Brien, he's sitting on the steps by the public sidewalk. He was the one they had in cuffs earlier, covered in blood, black curly hair."

"Ma'am, there's no one else out here but agents." The agent told her.

"Get me outside now," she told the agent whose mic she was holding. They exited the building after about 3 minutes and she looked all over but didn't see Walter anywhere and then she saw bloody footprints walking off towards the South. "Oh no, Walter, what are you thinking?" She looked at the agent with her, "See those foot prints? Find him and get him an ambulance now!" She demanded. She looked at several other agents standing around and yelled, "Get off your asses and get in your vehicles and find Walter O'Brien, he's weak and covered in blood. He needs medical care now." The agents scrambled away.


	4. Chapter 4

Cabe was slowly regaining consciousness and began struggling with the medics trying to figure out what was going on and Katharine came over as quick as she could, "Cabe, relax, your safe now."

Cabe shook his head and looked at her, "Katharine? Wha-What happened, where am I?"

Katharine smiled, "You got whacked in the back of the head pretty good Cabe."

Cabe reached back and winced as his fingers touched his head. "Oh man, wait, what about Walter, Ted and Florence," Cabe asked.

"Relax, Ted's fine, well he has a broken ankle and he was shot in the shoulder, Florence is okay though." Katharine told him.

Cabe smiled, "What about Collins?"

"Dead, shot through the neck, good job." She told him.

Cabe frowned, "I didn't shoot him." Cabe's eyes opened wide and he grabbed at his holster and his gun was missing. "Oh no, Walter, wait, you didn't tell me how Walter was."

"Cabe, I know he was in pretty bad shape, but I don't know how he is, in all the confusion he walked off. I've got agents looking for him now." Katharine told him.

Cabe forced his way up, "Cabe you need to relax and go to the hospital for care."

Cabe shook his head, "You don't understand, Walter is the only one who could have shot Collins, if he killed him he might very well try to kill himself."

Cabe pushed the medic away as he sat up on the side of the gurney. "Cabe, we'll find him just relax." Katharine told him.

"I'll relax the moment he's receiving medical care." Cabe told her.

* * *

"Director Cooper?" Katharine heard a call over the radio and a nearby agent gave her the mic to his radio.

"This is Cooper, go ahead." She told him.

"Ma'am we tracked the foot prints about two blocks and they disappeared." The agent told her.

"What? How could they just disappear?" She called over.

"I can't explain it Ma'am but we're going to fan out from this point and continue to search for him." The agent told her.

"Which way did the prints go?" Cabe asked her.

"To the south," she told him.

"Damn it, my SUV was two blocks to the South." Cabe told her.

"All agents this channel, we need a search for a Homeland SUV license plate #," she looked at Cabe and he gave it to her and she relayed it over the radio. "The driver is a government asset in need of medical care. All force against him is forbidden, I repeat no force is to be used against him. He's about 6 foot, 160 lbs, black curly hair; he'll have a lot of blood on him. The blood is his own; I repeat the blood is his own."

* * *

Cabe sat there on the gurney holding an ice pack to his head his vision finally returned to single vision. The medic with Ted had left over an hour ago taking Florence with them after Katharine gave them a direct order to take her. She was dealing with several things at once including trying to coordinate the search for Walter, she had agents stationed outside of the Garage but so far none of the agents had found him or the SUV. Cabe finally pulled out his phone and called Allie as it was starting to get dark. "Cabe? Oh please, is that you baby?" Allie asked in panic.

"Hey sweetheart, yea it's me. Sorry I'm still recovering from almost being brained." Cabe told her.

"What happened? What's going on?" Allie demanded.

"Very long story short, Collins kidnapped Florence, Walter tracked down where Collins was, Ted, Walter and I went in after them, Ted got separated by a trap, Walter walked us through until I was struck by a trap, Walter took my gun and saved Ted and Florence by killing Collins and now he is missing." Cabe told her.

"Cabe I have been so worried, the news reports were only saying there was Homeland activity involving a terrorist and that several agents had been hurt and one shot." Allie told him through her tears.

"I'm really sorry Allie; I'm just now starting to think a little clearer." Cabe told her.

"Who's this manhunt for then?" Allie asked.

"What do you mean; what manhunt?" Cabe asked her concerned.

"The news, LAPD is assisting Homeland on a manhunt, a terrorist escaped in a Homeland SUV." Allie told him.

"KATHARINE," Cabe roared and she turned around to look back at him.

"What is it Cabe, have you found him?" Katharine asked.

"No, Allie said the news is reporting that the LAPD is assisting Homeland searching for a terrorist who stole a Homeland SUV, damn it Katharine if they find him first they are going to shoot first and ask questions never." Cabe pleaded.

"Damn it," Katharine said and pulled out her phone and called LAPD's chief of police and proceeded to chew him up one side and down the other.

"Sweetheart, let me call you back." Cabe told Allie.

"Okay, but call me at least every half hour Cabe. I need to be sure you are okay." Allie told him.

Cabe hung up and walked over to the command center where Katharine was conducting the search for Walter.

* * *

Cabe saw Carlson's car pull up along side the building and he stepped out of the car and walked up, "I want a sit rep."

"You want a sit rep you worthless son of a bitch?" Cabe yelled. "I'll give you a sit rep, because of you a civilian I warned you about was kidnapped, because of you the agent that would have been protecting her is in Alaska looking for Bigfoot. Because of you another civilian was shot trying to stop the other civilian from being kidnapped. Because of you a fellow agent Ted Markus has been seriously injured trying to rescue the kidnapped victim. Because of you I was injured trying to rescue the kidnapped victim. Because of you my son is now missing because in order to save Ted and the kidnapped victim he had to use lethal force against a terrorist scumbag." Cabe yelled at him getting up in his face. Two agents grabbed Cabe and pulled him back.

"You know Gallo, that's the last straw. You're fired." Carlson told him.

"Actually Carlson, he's not fired. I've been appointed acting Director of Homeland and you are under arrest for conspiracy and treason." Katharine stepped up. "Release agent Gallo and take Carlson into custody." Katharine told the agents holding Cabe.

Carlson pulled his gun and was promptly shot several times by agents around him, dying almost instantly.

Cabe started to spit on him but instead moved back and sat down on the steps that led into the building and pulled out his phone. He called up Paige's contact and hit dial.

"Hey Cabe, we're in the middle of dinner, can I call you back please?" Paige asked.

"Wait, Paige, is Walter there with you?" Cabe almost begged.

"What? No Cabe, I haven't seen him since we saw you at that office. Why would you think he would be here?" Paige asked.

"Kid, Walter's missing. He had to kill Collins to save Ted and Florence and now we have no clue where he is." Cabe told her.

"Oh my God, no, Cabe, please tell me you are kidding." Paige begged.

"I wish I could, please, if he shows up there call me immediately." Cabe told her.

"I will Cabe, please call me if you hear anything no matter what time it is." Paige pleaded.

As he hung up, "Cabe, LAPD is reporting they found your SUV, it was crashed about thirteen miles from here." Katharine told him.

As he moved over to the command center a forensic tech stepped up to Katharine and slipped an usb drive to her. Cabe looked at the map Katharine whispered to the tech, "Are you okay with this?"

He whispered back, "If I wasn't, I wouldn't have done it."

* * *

Cabe saw where she was talking about and he ran over and jumped in Carlson's car and took off. It only took him about fifteen minutes with lights and siren to arrive on scene and already Homeland agents had swarmed all over the scene and Cabe jumped out and pushed his way through. The SUV had run down the side of an embankment and was concealed from the road. "Is he down there?" Cabe yelled down the hill holding up his badge.

"No sir, whoever it was is long gone." An officer not far from him answered him.

"Damn it," Cabe swore.

"Don't worry; we'll get your scumbag for you." The officer told him.

Cabe spun around, "Listen asshole, you get this clear and then you get it clear to every other cop out there. The man in question is not a criminal. He is a high value government asset who is in desperate need of medical care. Absolutely no force is to be used against him and if one of you harms him, I'm going to kick the ever living shit out of you. You copy that?" Cabe yelled at him.

The officer turned and started walking towards Cabe, "What did you just say to me?"

Agent Stevens who had taken charge of the scene stepped in and stopped him, "Back off, the man in question is his son and he's a good guy so get on your radio and advise your dispatch you guys got your information screwed up, now. Or I am going to help him kick your ass." The officer glared at Stevens but finally turned and walked away while calling dispatch on his radio.

Cabe was shining a flashlight along the embankment looking around but couldn't see any sign that Walter had climbed up the embankment, he suddenly realized the direction Walter had been traveling, he looked at one of the other Homeland agents, "Do me a favor, follow the stream on foot incase he is somewhere in this ditch to this address." He scribbled Paige's address down and tore the page out of his notepad and gave it to the agent, "Have another agent follow you in a car, keep adjusting your course making it as close to a straight line from here to this address. I'm positive he's headed there and his mind will have him walking the absolutely shortest distance.

The agent nodded and walked over to talk with another agent and while the other agent jumped in a car to follow him, he began walking along the bank of the ditch. Cabe jumped back into Carlson's car and took off.

* * *

Paige was sitting on her couch a nervous wreck. Ralph sat there looking at his Mom, "Mom, you should try to eat."

Paige smiled at Ralph, "Oh baby, I wish I could, I'm too nervous. I got to know what happened to Walter first." Ralph nodded when they heard a thud against their door.

Paige jumped up and ran over and looked out but didn't see anything. "That was weird," she told Ralph, "There is no one out there."

They heard a faint knock by the bottom of the door and Paige unlocked the door and yanked it open and found Walter sprawled out on the balcony against the door his hand trying to knock on the door that was open. "WALTER," she screamed in horror at seeing all the blood. "Oh Lord no. Lord no. Please no. Please no." She fell to her knees and pulled him up and rolled him over onto his back, his head on her lap. Tears started running down her face. He had a small laceration across his left eyebrow, his nose was mashed.

Ralph looked down, "Dad?"

Paige looked over and saw tears in Ralph's eyes. "Baby, run and get Sara, she's a registered nurse."

Ralph carefully moved around Walter while Paige pulled her phone out and called Cabe, "Cabe, oh God, Cabe, he's here, he's here. Oh God Cabe, he's hurt so bad and he's so cold to the touch, please, I need you."

"Stay calm Paige, I'm just minutes away and I'll get a medic on its way to you now." Cabe told her. He hung up and called 911.

Paige looked down at Walter tears running down her cheeks, "Please be okay Walter, I am so sorry, I love you so much, I never stopped loving you." She began pulling Walter the rest of the way inside and started checking him for other injuries. She almost fainted looking at his hands, "Oh God, Walter, what happened to you baby?" She looked down his body and saw all the blood on his shoes and she quickly moved down to his feet and pulled his shoes off and pulled his blood soaked socks off and found his shirt torn in half and wrapped around each foot. She pulled them off and she broke down crying harder at the sight of the bleeding sores on his feet and how bad they had to hurt him, "Oh God baby, oh my sweet Walter, I never should have walked out on you."

* * *

Ralph started pounding on Sara's door and a moment later the door opened as Sara looked out. "Ralph? What's wrong?"

"Please, my Dad, he's hurt really bad, Mom's with him and we need you." Ralph turned and ran back home with Sara close behind. As Ralph neared the bottom of the stairs to their door Cabe pulled up outside.

* * *

Ralph stepped up to the door and stopped dead and began crying seeing his feet. As Sara stepped up to the door she gasped seeing his feet. Paige looked up, "Please Sara, please, help him, I'm begging you." Paige pleaded with her.

"Ralph, go get me as many clean towels as you can, if you got alcohol get me that and a wash cloth too." Sara told him and Ralph flew into their bathroom. Sara knelt down and looked at his feet a little closer.

Paige moved back up and lifted Walter's head onto her lap as she ran her hand through his hair and slid her other hand down under his t-shirt and rested her hand on his chest trying to draw comfort from the rise and fall of his chest and the slight beat of his heart she could feel.

Cabe came running up the stairs and took one look at scene before him. "Dear Lord," he prayed simply.

"His hands are really bad too," Paige told her.

Sara looked up from his feet and stopped before she got to his hands and saw the holes tore into the legs of his pants and she reached up and unbuckled his belt, unbuttoned his pants and pulled his zipper down."

Paige grabbed her hands, "What do you think you are doing?" She demanded.

"Paige, he's got tears in his pants legs I got to see his legs to properly assess all of his injuries." Sara told her as she looked up at her and watched as Paige nodded so she continued and pulled his pants down his legs and they saw the blood oozing from multiple cuts on his legs. She probed one of the cuts and she could tell there was something hard in it. Ralph came back with ten towels and the alcohol and set them down and saw his legs and he flinched. "Ralph I need tweezers, can you find me a pair please?" Sara asked him.

He ran back to the bathroom.

"Anything I can do?" Cabe asked in a small voice.

"We need to elevate his feet, to try and get as much blood back into his core; he's lost a lot so far. Get me something that will hold his feet up at least a foot off the floor and then get an ambulance here quicker!" Sara answered him. Cabe pulled out his phone and called local dispatch to get an ETA on the ambulance and he ran over and grabbed the cushions off of the swing on Paige's balcony and brought them back over.

Sara looked at Paige as she held his feet up and Cabe slid the cushions under his feet. "Paige, you got to lower his head, I know you want to try and comfort him but he's out of it now." Sara told her. Paige reluctantly moved and lowered his head to the floor. Sara looked up at his hands, "Dear Lord, what happened to cause all this damage to him?" Sara asked.

Paige shook her head, "I don't know, he just got here and collapsed at my door."

She grabbed the wash cloth and drenched it in alcohol and Walter's body shook and jerked from the burning of the alcohol in his wounds. Sara cleaned his feet before wrapping them in towels and then did the same with his hands after digging the glass fragments out of them with the tweezers Ralph brought her. Ralph stood there watching as Sara started probing one of the cuts on his legs she pulled out a piece of glass. She looked at Ralph, get me some cotton balls.

Ralph nodded and ran back to the bathroom and came right back with the bag of cotton balls. She pulled a cotton ball apart and applied alcohol to it and she pushed it into the cut and Walter's leg jerked hard and shook at the burning. She pulled a piece of glass out of the next cut when they heard a siren getting closer. Ralph handed her the other half of the cotton ball with alcohol on it and she pushed it into the cut. Probing the cuts was difficult as his legs continued to shake and tremble from alcohol burn. She probed the next cut and got another piece of glass out and stuffed the next cotton ball half Ralph gave her into it. By the time the medics got up to them she had extracted 23 pieces of glass from his legs and hands.

* * *

"I'm an RN did you bring your EKG up with you?" Sara asked the Paramedic. "Good, hook him up to that first." Sara told her when she saw her nod.

Paige moved back as the EMT knelt down and using his scissors to cut Walter's t-shirt open and the Paramedic began hooking up the EKG leads to him. They all looked at the machine as it began to beep and the Paramedic spoke, "I don't like the readings, his waves are wrong and the heartbeat is extremely weak."

"Give me an IV," Sara demanded and she felt Walter's left arm and quickly poured alcohol over it and then inserted the IV and they handed her a bag of saline and she hooked it up. The EMT hooked the bag to the pole on the gurney.

"What are you waiting for? Let's get him loaded up and to the hospital," Cabe told them.

"He might go into cardiac arrest, give us a moment to see if the IV helps to stabilize him." Sara told him.

The EKG machine began to beep oddly and then a steady alarm sounded as Walter flat lined.

"Walter, noooo," Paige wailed as Ralph clung to her.

The EMT jumped up and moved to the end of the gurney and grabbed the portable defibrillator.

Cabe grabbed his mouth as tears ran down his face.

Paige and Ralph jumped as the Paramedic yelled "Clear," when the machine reached the set voltage and hit Walter with the paddles and Walter's body spasmed. "Increase to 300." She told her partner. The machine charged again, "Clear," she yelled again and Walter's body jumped again as the current passed through his body. The alarm continued as the line on the read out remained flat. "Increase to 400," the Paramedic said and as the machine reached its potential again, "Clear," and Walter's body jerked again.

Sara moved up and began chest compressions trying desperately to save Walter. The Paramedic looked to her partner and shook her head sadly and reached out and put her hand on Sara's and Sara began to cry as she turned away. Cabe fell to one knee as he looked down at the horrible scene before him. In desperation Ralph moved up next to Walter and grabbed his hand, "Please come back Dad."

Paige slowly knelt down beside his head, "It can't end like this," she whispered as she reached down and lifted his head onto her knees and bent over him crying. As she ran her hands down his chest she whispered, "Please Lord, please restore the love of my life to me."

Ralph's eyes opened wide as he looked at Walter's hand, "Dad?" They all heard the EKG begin beeping again.

* * *

**This chapter is a little longer than usual. There really wasn't a good place between 2500-3000 words to end it and I didn't want to leave it in a negative place so rather than leave it at a nasty cliffhanger I decided to let it run long. To the Adventure! -Tim**


	5. Chapter 5

**Just as a reminder, this story does not lead back to the Graduation story. There is a small difference between the two meetings at the job bid when Walter finds out about CP that alter's how Paige responds in these two stories. I will be going back to the Prequel to tell that side of things after this is done. To the Adventure! -Tim**

* * *

A large smile broke out on Paige's face as tears of happiness and gratitude erupted down her face as she bent over and smothered his face with kisses.

"Now we can get him on the gurney for transport," Sara told them.

Cabe helped the Paramedic and her partner get Walter onto the gurney. Cabe wrapped his arms around Paige as she quickly moved into his arms and grabbed hold of him crying.

"Where are you taking him?" Cabe asked the medics.

"An order came down from Homeland to take him to Cedars hospital which is marginally the closest unless there is some place else you'd prefer." The medic responded.

Cabe looked at Paige and she shook her head. "That's fine, we'll meet you there." Cabe told them.

Paige turned to the gurney, "We'll be right behind you baby, and I'll be there when you wake up, I promise, I love you so much." She kissed his forehead again and watched as they took him out the door with tears in her eyes.

Looking at the blood on the floor and balcony Cabe turned to Ralph, "Ralph, go get the mop bucket and fill it with hot soapy water with some disinfectant and bring it out here with the mop while I put these towels into the wash." Cabe told him. He looked at Paige, "Go wash your hands sweetheart and change your clothes and we'll go to the hospital."

Cabe pulled out his phone and called Allie and told her they had Walter and were headed to Cedars shortly.

Paige turned to Sara, "Sara, thank you sounds so pathetic for all you did, I am truly grateful."

Sara hugged her, "Of course Paige, good luck."

Paige turned and walked into the bathroom and washed her hands. As she walked into her bedroom she saw that Walter's shirt she was wearing along with her pants had a good amount of his blood on them. Paige put on another pair of jeans and one of Walter's other shirts and walked into the utility room and put the shirt and jeans into the washing machine where Cabe had placed the towels to let them all soak while they were gone.

Ralph had quickly mopped the floor and balcony while Cabe and his Mom were dealing with her clothes and the towels. When Cabe came back out he nodded at Ralph with a smile, "Good job son."

Paige came out of the utility room and Cabe looked at her, "Ready?"

She nodded, "More than ready."

* * *

They got into the car Cabe drove up in and Cabe took off turning on the car's lights and siren. Paige looked at Cabe, "Where's your SUV?"

Cabe laughed, "Walter stole it and wrecked it trying to get to you."

Paige's heart swelled with love at that. "Cabe, what exactly has happened? The full truth, please," Paige pleaded.

Cabe cleared his throat, "Well Walter became so distraught that Florence and I knew about your company and didn't tell him that at the first stop light after we left he jumped out of the SUV and walked back to the Garage."

"But-but that was over ten miles from the Garage." Paige said.

Cabe nodded, "He walked the entire distance back too. Once he was at the Garage he grabbed a sledgehammer and began beating on what was left of his car. He beat on it so long he tore his hands open and he was so worn out when he couldn't wield the hammer any longer he collapsed on top of all the broken glass."

"Wait, what do you mean what was left of his car?" Paige stared at him.

"He fell asleep at the wheel and crashed into the barricade wall outside of the Garage a week ago." Cabe told her.

"What? Why didn't you tell me?" Paige begged.

"Kid, I told you he was dying over there without you. Did you think I was lying? He wasn't eating, barely sleeping if at all. The clients Scorpion did have all terminated their contracts when you left, no one else would give him a chance for another job without you, thanks to Carlson." Cabe told her.

"But, Dad told me he was so busy with work. Said he wasn't sure how he'd get it all done without Sylvester's help and he had to cancel several contracts because there wasn't enough time to find a competent mechanic like Happy to fulfill the contract." Ralph said from the back.

Cabe shook his head, "He didn't want you to worry."

"But if things were so bad, why did he pay me?" Paige asked stunned.

Cabe looked at her, "Kid, he loves you, he wasn't about to let you guys go without even though you dumped and left him. He even filled out his Will and named Ralph beneficiary with you as guardian over it until he turned eighteen in case something happened.

"Oh Walter, Lord what a mess I've made. So what happened that Walter had to kill Collins?" Paige asked.

Ralph gasped from the backseat and Paige turned, "Oh Ralph, I'm sorry baby."

"While I was trying to take care of Walter's hands his cries were bothering Florence so bad she ran out of the Garage and apparently Collins was out there waiting for something and he kidnapped her. Freddie was out there and he tried to stop him and Collins shot him in the gut." Cabe told her and Paige and Ralph both gasped.

"Walter and I heard the gunfire and ran out but Collins had already driven off with Florence by the time we got out there. We had to take care of Freddie first though. Walter went back inside while the medics worked on Freddie to see if he could find anything to lead us to Collins and then Ted showed up." Cabe drew in a deep breath. "Walter accessed the traffic cams to try and follow Collins's car when Collins broke into the feed and transmitted video of him and he had a conversation with Walter while Walter uploaded some kind of Trojan to Collins's computer which allowed him to find where he was. The three of us went over there and thank God I listened to Walter, Collins had that place rigged with all kinds of booby traps. Ted didn't listen and ran into one trap and was dropped into the basement. Another trap was a type of trip wire that probably would have cut my foot off before I even knew what happened but thankfully Walter found it and disabled it."

"But at one point I got hit by a trap that knocked me out and gave me this splitting headache. And Walter grabbed my gun and continued on and somehow got the drop on Collins and shot him, saving Ted and Florence." Cabe finished, "Well that's a somewhat condense version."

* * *

As they arrived at the hospital they found access had been blocked by numerous Homeland vehicles and personnel but they were waved through immediately and as Cabe pulled up outside of the ER another agent ran up and took the keys for the car as Cabe was led inside with Paige and Ralph past the metal detectors.

"Agent Gallo, I'm agent Ryan. They've already moved Mr. O'Brien into surgery but this is the nurse who was working with him." Agent Ryan told him.

"Judy?" Cabe stared at the nurse.

"You know her?" Paige asked.

Cabe nodded, "She took care of Walter in the ER after his car wreck."

"Cabe, I'm really sorry about Walter, the Drs are really worried because Walter's blood count is extremely low. One of the problems is he is a universal donor which means he can only receive blood from another universal donor. But we'll have that sorted out shortly. The big thing is infection risk, with that low of a blood count it can put him at extreme risk of infections but we are doing everything for him. We've got a special room set up over here for you guys to wait and I'll come out every half hour to give you updates sooner if I have anything new." Judy told them as she led them over and let them into the room.

"Cabe?!" Florence exclaimed as she rushed into his arms as Cabe stepped into the room. "Did you find Walter?"

Paige's skin prickled and her face darkened as she saw Cabe hug Florence back.

"Ow, Mom, my shoulders," Ralph complained.

Paige looked down, "Baby I'm so sorry." She relaxed her grip instantly.

Cabe looked back at Paige and Ralph, "Yes we did, he made his way to Paige's."

Florence smiled at Paige, "That makes complete sense. Paige, he loves you so much. I'm so glad he was found. I guess you are here about Ted? He's still in surgery but they said everything looks positive."

Paige cleared her throat, "I'm glad things look good for Ted but actually Judy here was just bringing us up to date on Walter's condition."

Tears welled up in Florence's eyes, "Then I didn't imagine all the blood I saw on Walter when he saved us." Florence wrapped her arms around herself and walked over and sat down on a couch and pulled her legs up under herself.

Judy looked to see if everyone else was done so she could continue. "The Drs said the cut over his eye is fairly simple baring any complications on the x-ray, his nose is a little more complex but still it is all the cuts and sores that they are the most concerned with. The cuts they can stitch, the sores they are going to have to look at some kind of skin graph to cover them. The biggest problem being how long he's had them and how much bacteria has been introduced into his system through them and complicating that is his heart stopped twice. They got him on high dose, wide spectrum antibiotics. They will probably leave him in a medically induced coma for the next five to seven days, best case scenario. I wish I had better news." Judy told them.

Paige stared at her, "Twice? But his heart only stopped once at our place."

Judy nodded, "He coded again as the ambulance brought him in. It was a miracle we got his heart going again. They'll be monitoring his heart very closely for the next year."

Paige sighed, "Thank you Judy, at least he has a chance. I'm Paige and my son Ralph." Paige told her.

"You're welcome; it's nice to meet you Paige." Judy told her, she stopped just as she turned to leave, "Cabe, what happened to the back of your head?"

Cabe laughed, "Got whacked pretty good by a booby trap."

Judy grabbed his arm, "Come with me, I'm going to get you checked in and get the Dr to order and x-ray to rule out any problems.

Cabe shook his head, "When Walter gets out of surgery."

Paige turned and looked, "Cabe, that isn't something to laugh about! Judy's right you need to let them check you out. It looks awful."

An agent stepped in, "Agent Gallo, we got an Allie Jones outside; she said she is with you?"

Cabe nodded, "Please bring her in here. Judy, I'm serious, I'm fine and as soon as Walter is out of surgery and I see him then you guys can look at my head."

The agent nodded and stepped out as Judy huffed and left. The agent returned a few minutes later with Allie and she ran into Cabe's arms and hugged him fiercely. "Are you okay Cabe?" She looked at him.

"No he's not, he needs to let them look at his head," Paige told her.

Cabe smiled and nodded, "It's just a small goose egg on the back of my head."

Allie forced him to turn and looked at it, "Cabe, you need to get this looked at now."

"I will as soon as Walter is out of surgery." Cabe told her.

"No, you'll get it looked at now." Katharine stepped into the room followed by Judy. "There is nothing else to do right now, Walter will be in surgery for at least the next five hours."

Cabe looked at Judy, "Tattletale." He teased her.

Judy smiled, "Damn straight, now come on so I can get you checked in and take you to x-ray and then go check on Walter."

Cabe kissed Allie and followed after Judy.

* * *

Allie and Paige sat down together and Katharine joined them as they made small talk. Paige swallowed and looked back at Florence all alone, "Florence, why don't you come up here with us? You shouldn't be back there by yourself."

Slowly Florence shook her head, "I don't deserve to sit with you guys."

Katharine leaned over, "I'll be right back." She stood and walked back and sat on the couch next to Florence. "Want to talk about it?"

Florence lifted her chin and shook her head.

"You know what I think?" Without waiting for a response Katharine continued whispering, "You're worried that they'll find out the truth about you helping Collins by breaking up Scorpion and then tormenting Walter."

* * *

"Cabe told me about Walter crashing his car last week, is that all that happen since I left Scorpion?" Paige asked Allie.

Allie shook her head, "I guess at this point it's moot but someone starting that first night had been tormenting Walter. That first night they vandalized his car and tagged the building calling him a 'real dick'."

Paige's eyes got real big, "What? Who?"

"Ted never found out, then the next night they tagged it again with 'unworthy of love'." Allie told her.

Paige's eyes filled with tears.

"The next night was 'no one loves you.'" Allie continued.

Paige stared at her in horror as tears ran down her cheeks, "Why didn't Walter or Cabe tell me what was happening? I would have been right over there."

"Walter didn't want you back out of pity. He wanted you back out of love. And you going back because of that would have seemed like pity." Allie told her.

"So what happened next?" Paige asked.

"The next night they tagged the building with 'Do us a favor and DIE!' That was the last time it was tagged." Allie told her.

"My poor Walter, he never should have had to face this without me." Paige cried.

* * *

Florence looked at Katharine with horror and tears in her eyes, "How?" She whispered

Katharine took a sip of her coffee, "Walter didn't realize that one of the audio files he sent to me about Carlson had conversation between Collins and Carlson discussing your involvement."

Her tears spilled over the edge of her eyes and ran down her cheeks, "H-How come you haven't had me arrested yet?" She looked up at Paige with guilt heavily on her face and heart.

"Well to be honest I was going to, but I spoke with Cabe briefly and he told me the whole story about what Walter had done for Ted and what he was willing to do for you even after all you did to him. If it wasn't for the love I have for Cabe and Scorpion/Walter I'd have you dragged to the desert and buried up to your neck and left for dead. As it is I am going to trust Walter, he still sees something of value in you even if I don't." Katharine said taking another sip of her coffee.

"It doesn't really matter I suppose, now that Collins is dead, Walter will be expecting my resignation from Scorpion when he finally recovers and returns to the Garage." Florence said sadly.

Katharine nodded, "Well that's certainly his prerogative, but unless you want to stir up questions you don't want to have to answer, and you are serious about changing your ways you better stop hiding and socialize a little." Katharine stood up and walked up to rejoin Allie and Paige.

Slowly Florence stood and walked up and sat next to Paige and tried to join in their conversation.

* * *

Ralph was watching the TV, "Mom, look!" Ralph exclaimed.

Paige looked over and saw the news, "We have to advise our viewers what you are about to see is disturbing and not suitable for some of our younger viewers, Parental Guidance is recommended."

"Turn it up Ralph," Paige told him. Allie and Florence looked to see what was going on.

"We obtained this exclusive video that we have been able to verify that shows what happened concerning the rescue of the hostage that the terrorist Mark Collins was holding and the neutralization of Collins." Video footage starts showing Walter leading Cabe and Ted down the sidewalk to the building, the announcer says, "This is the building where the terrorist Mark Collins is holding a member of Team Scorpion a Florence Tipton hostage. The men in this video are, Walter O'Brien the head of genius problem solving team Scorpion and Homeland agents Cabe Gallo and Ted Markus. Team Scorpion are contractors working with Homeland on special emergency cases. "As you can see by Mr. O'Brien's walk he is suffering from injuries to his feet. You can also see by the blood he has some kind of injuries to his hands as well. We haven't been able to determine what exactly happened to Mr. O'Brien at this time. Part of the following audio is garbled and we have been unable to enhance it any further to make it clear. You'll hear Terrorist Mark Collins speaking and you'll hear Florence Tipton responding."

"Well, well, looks like Walter is still on top of his game. How about that Florence xxxx xxxxxx he xxxxx xxx xxxxxx him, broke apart his precious cyclone and xxxx xxxxxxxx the fact that his former friends started a company to put his precious Scorpion out of business permanently he is still determined to save you. Man that stupid waitress really screwed him up." Collins told her.

"Don't call her that, she's a better person than you will ever be you demented sicko." Florence screamed.

Collins laughed, "Don't worry, they won't save you and if you are lucky whoever gets here after they are dead will make it down here to save you."

Paige with tears of guilt over Centipede Partners in her eyes hugged Florence in gratitude for standing up for her.

They all flinch as the shotgun blast ripped through the door and they cringed as they entered the building. "The footage changes here to infrared because of the cameras that are inside the building."

They jumped when they heard Florence's scream and stared in horror as Ted ran off towards the sound and then disappeared into the floor. They watched unable to look away as Walter led Cabe on through the rooms.

Paige cried as she saw the pain Walter endured to his hands to disable the wire trap. "If you weren't able to tell, that wire was so sharp it sliced clean through Walter's pen. Our expert said this type of wire would have sliced completely through someone's ankle before they realized what happened. And as you can see the impact of the ram against the door has caused Mr. O'Brien intense pain."


	6. Chapter 6

They watched fascinated as Walter led Cabe around the next room and over to the stairs and as much as she was hurting from his pain, Paige was so proud of Walter persevering through the pain and still figuring out the right course of actions. They watched in horror as Cabe fell down the ramp as a result of the cut made to his hand and they held their breath as Walter managed to reach out and grab hold of him mere moments before he hit the floor and pulled him to safety. Allie was squeezing Paige's hand until she saw he was okay even though she knew he was okay and being examined as they watched the video.

They watched as Walter tried to recover from the pain caused by saving Cabe and then he continues on. "Clearly, whatever is wrong with Mr. O'Brien, saving the life of agent Gallo has taken a huge toll on him in the way of increasing the pain he is in, most likely causing more physical damage as well. Collins seems to enjoy taunting him but Walter's able to keep his composure so that he can continue."

"No one seems to understand exactly how Mr. O'Brien is picking up on what he needs to do but as he has a reported 197 IQ we can only attribute it to that." They watched as he pushed in on the electrical box and the wall opened next to it. They watched even with how tired Walter is he walks back and picks up the ram and throws it into the next room.

They watched Walter and Cabe go in and then listened as Cabe persuades Walter to let him look at his feet. Allie and Florence both shuddered even though it was infrared the camera's 4k quality brought too much realism to his wounds. "So that's how his shirt got wrapped around his feet." Paige commented.

"We must warn you to consider any younger viewers in what happens next." The reporter announced before the video continued.

They jumped as they heard a gunshot and then Florence demanding Collins to leave Ted alone. Collins laughed and taunted them making Ted groan in pain.

Paige swallowed as Collins talked about visiting her after Walter was dead and she hugged Florence as she defended her. And she cringed hearing the slap when Collins struck her. She paled as she thought of Ralph being forced to watch as Collins tortured her to death and then being raised by a raving lunatic. She looked at Ralph and he hugged her, "Dad would never have allowed that," Ralph whispered to her. Paige smiled and squeezed his hand.

They listened to Cabe and Walter as they argued about Walter resting a little longer.

They watched in horror as Cabe at Walter's request picked up the ram and the trap that was sprung and the board cracked him in the back of the head and they all grabbed the back of their heads. Paige noticed that when Walter knelt next to Cabe to check on him he had reached into Cabe's jacket and pulled his gun out.

They listened to Collins taunt Walter again before asking a question that perked Paige's curiosity. Paige leaned forward as if somehow being a little closer to the set would help her hear Walter better as he responded to what made her so important to him. She swallowed hard as several tears ran down her cheeks as he described her abilities and her true value and then she cried as Walter said he'd rather face the world with her than face her with the world. Ralph leaned over the back of her chair and wrapped his arms around her shoulders and hugged her. "Dad loves you so much."

Paige noticed as Walter stood up he kept his arm down concealing the gun next to his leg. "As you can see, every step, every action Mr. O'Brien takes he's getting weaker."

Finally they see Walter standing before the seven portals, "Here you can see just how tired he is as he is having trouble keeping his head up. Collins clearly believes he is trying to apologize for some perceived slight against him." They listen to Walter and Collins talking and then they see Walter spin to face the third image on his left and he raised his right hand and shot Collins through the neck and then as Walter steps forward he falls and unable to stand crawls in threw the shattered glass and frees Florence while ignoring Collins and gets on Collins's computer.

"Mr. O'Brien is able to use the computer to deactivate the remaining traps making it possible for other Homeland agents who have arrived to enter and assist those injured. This part is a little hard to watch as the agents fearing who was and wasn't friendly cuff and manhandle Mr. O'Brien out of the basement."

Paige became angry at how they treated Walter. Katharine looked at Paige, "I know, unfortunately no one else was there who knew Walter was a good guy. I wish they had been a little gentler with him at least. I will be having a discussion with them over this in a debriefing."

* * *

Allie looked at Katharine, "I don't understand, how did they get this video?"

Katharine winked at her, "I really don't know, whoever leaked it is in violation of national security regulations. Something else I have to investigate I suppose. I'm not real concerned about it though, I think Walter deserves some extra recognition after all he has done and gone through. Don't you?"

Allie smiled and nodded her head glancing at Paige.

"Dad is a real hero isn't he Mom?" Ralph asked Paige. It wasn't a real question; Ralph just wanted to drive home the point to his Mom.

Paige smiled, "Yes, but we already knew that didn't we? Now everyone else can see what a hero he is."

Florence had tears running down her face and Paige looked at her, "Are you okay Florence?"

Florence nodded, "All Walter has gone through, the break up, everyone leaving him, people being so rude to him when he was just trying to secure work, his poor feet, his hands, enduring all he did in that building to keep Ted and Cabe safe and to rescue me and Ted and stop the threat of Collins. He didn't deserve any of that pain." Florence buried her head in her hands and sobbed.

Paige had tears in her eyes and she reached over and wrapped her arm around Florence's shoulders and pulled her over to her and Florence turned and hugged her tightly and cried into her shoulder while Ralph sat forward and rubbed her back.

A nurse stuck her head in the door, "Florence Tipton?"

Florence looked up and wiped at her eyes, "Yes?"

"Ms. Tipton, the Dr will be out to discuss the surgery with you in a few minutes and agent Markus will be out of recovery in about an hour." The nurse told her with a smile.

* * *

Cabe finally returned to their little waiting room wearing scrubs and carrying a bag filled with his suit and sporting a new dressing on his hand after the Dr had completed his exam and getting the report back from his x-ray. "Where's Florence?" He asked as he looked around after hugging Allie.

"Ted was moved from recovery up to a room so they took her up there. I think I like 'Dr Gallo'." Allie told him with a wicked grin.

Cabe laughed, "They were kind enough to give me a pair because of all of Walter's blood on my suit."

"Grandpa, we got to see you get whacked in the back of your head!" Ralph told him enthusiastically.

Cabe laughed, "You did? How did you see that?"

Paige smiled, "The news had the complete video from when you guys walked up to the building to when Walter was restrained and dragged out of the basement."

Cabe frowned, "Say what?"

"Yea, they've been running the video or portions of it approximately every eleven minutes." Ralph told him.

"No, who the hell restrained him and dragged him out of the basement?" Cabe swore.

"Relax Cabe, I'm on it." Katharine told him.

"What did the Dr say about your head and hand?" Allie asked him.

"He said I'm fine, Tylenol for pain and ice packs to reduce swelling. I got seven stitches in the hand." Cabe smiled as he kissed her.

"What's the latest on Walter?" Cabe asked.

"Judy said they closed the cut above his eye and got his nose fixed and all the wounds on his legs have been closed. The plastic surgeon was now working on his hands and feet. She doesn't expect any nerve damage in his hands which is good since he needs to be able to type, but she's unsure about his feet. He really did a number on them, walking on them so much." Paige told him as bravely as she could.

"Didn't help saving me when I fell down that ramp." Cabe said glumly.

"Cabe, that wasn't your fault, the shock of your hand being cut, Walter would have chosen to save you if it meant losing his feet. You know how much he loves you." Paige told him with a tear in her eye.

"And if you hadn't been there to help him Grandpa, Dad might have died and not have been able to save Florence and Ted and Collins would still be loose in the world. Mom might be dead and I could be in his clutches." Ralph told him.

Cabe frowned, "What's that suppose to mean?"

"You'll see in about three minutes when they show the video again Grandpa," Ralph told him.

* * *

Ted stirred in his bed as the anesthetic wore off completely, "Ted?" Florence barely whispered.

"Hey good looking, it's so good to see you. How about a kiss? Ted asked slowly and with a grin.

"There's something I need to tell you first, you might not want to kiss me." She whispered.

Ted smile, "Don't be too sure about that." He winked at her.

Florence couldn't even smile, "I'm serious."

"Well then, tell me so I can get that kiss." Ted told her.

Florence wrung her hands as she stood there, "I was told by Walter that I was not to speak of this again but I have to tell you because I-I, I love you and it's been killing me to keep this hidden from you. And if we can move forward together I have to be honest with you because I don't ever want to lie to you, even if it is omission."

Ted reached out and took her right hand and held it gently but with the strength and compassion that she had come to know from him.

"That day," Florence looked from Ted's face out his window, "That day Walter wanted to see Cabe and me at the Garage," tears ran down her face. "Walter," she closed her eyes and took a deep breath, "Walter, Walter he,"

"He figured out you had been the one working for Collins and were the one that had tagged the building?" Ted asked.

Florence's eyes flew open in horror, "Y-you knew?"

Ted laughed, "Well not really but it had been running around the back of my mind. It was the only thing that really made any sense to me, especially when it all stopped that day. And last weekend only confirmed it, when Cabe brought up the bogus story about credit charges."

Florence looked down at the floor, "Are you going to break up with me?" She asked in a small voice.

"Why would I? I'm not saying I like it but if Walter and Cabe are okay with it why wouldn't I be? Besides, there is no proof you did anything. I'm sure Walter destroyed any evidence Collins had that proved anything and I am sure he got rid of whatever proved to him you did anything wrong." Ted told her still holding her hand.

"He missed something though, an audio file between Collins and Carlson, they discussed my involvement." Florence told him.

Ted's eyes opened wide, "Okay, look, get my keys out of my pocket. Go to my place and in the spare bedroom the finial on the left side at the head of the bed, it will unscrew. Inside you will find $10k. It's my emergency fund. Take it and get out of the country, go to a country without extradition. I'll join you as soon as the Drs clear me for travel."

Florence smiled and shook her head. "No, I would never let you do that. You've devoted your life to this country I won't see you become a pariah. Besides, it's too late. Katharine Cooper already knows. But thank you." She bent over and kissed him.

"Cooper knows? So she's letting you say goodbye before sending you to prison?" Ted asked with tears in his eyes.

Florence shook her head, "She said that Walter still sees some good in me and she trusts him."

Ted smiled, "Well bless both their souls." He pulled her bodily over into bed with him and kissed her deeply. He groaned, "That was stupid, now my shoulder is killing me." But he refused to let her get up.

* * *

Cabe had stewed at what Collins had said he was going to do to Paige and Ralph, "I'm half tempted to go to the corner's office and beat the crap out of Collins's body and then dump it on an ant hill. But that would probably hurt the ants the demented freak."

* * *

Ralph had fallen asleep with his head on Paige's lap and Allie was sleeping on Cabe's shoulder as they watched the video of the rescue for the twelfth time. Katharine shook her head, "If they air that one more time tonight I think I will scream."

Cabe and Paige both chuckled lightly.

Paige smiled shyly, "I wouldn't mind a personal copy of Walter's response to his question of why I was important to him."

"I'll get you a copy, but you better never forget how much Walter truly loves you and only you, again." Katharine told her.

"I won't, I promise. I wonder if I could get Walter to say those words as his wedding vows." Paige wondered.

Cabe and Katharine looked at her, "What? Can't a girl dream?" Paige asked with a smile.

The door opened and Judy stepped in, "Judy, I thought you were supposed to be off already?" Cabe asked her.

Judy smiled, "I couldn't leave without knowing the outcome of Walter's surgery. The plastic surgeon will be in shortly. She said everything went really well, there is still some concerns but she'll discuss that with you when she gets here."

Cabe smiled, "Thank you Judy, we really appreciate your dedication to seeing this through."

"You guys have a good night; I might stop by tomorrow and check on Walter in his room." Judy told them as she left.

Cabe laugh, "That reminds me. When Walter wakes up, do not bring his laptop up here to him if he asks."

Paige looked at him puzzled, "Why not?"

"The day after his car wreck he hacked the hospital system and got the Dr's login information and then logged in and changed his orders to get himself discharged." Cabe told her.

Paige stared at him, "He what? He's incorrigible."

Cabe sighed, "Yea, I actually hurt him that day. He was refusing to come to the hospital and I basically had to threaten to have him committed and all he was worried about was being able to respond to Ralph if he emailed him. I couldn't believe I actually used that against him to make him come to the hospital. He really raked me over the coals pretty good for it."

Paige nodded, "I guess I can see how that would upset him, but you were just trying to help him."

* * *

"Cabe, I'm really sorry." Paige told him.

Cabe looked at her, "What about?"

"Everything, I should have listened to you and told Toby to take a flying leap, he manipulated the crap out of me. I never should have let them push me around, I should have just taken the time off and then gone back to see Walter. That was my original plan anyway." Paige told him.

"Speaking of them, what are you going to do tomorrow?" Cabe asked her.

"What do you mean?" Paige looked puzzled.

Cabe looked at her, "Centipede Partners."

Paige held up her finger and pulled her phone out and called Toby, "Hey Toby, yea, sorry to call so late. Yea, take your Beetlejuice and shove it and Centipede Partners up your ass. I quit." Paige hit 'hang up' and then turned her phone off.

Cabe laughed, "What was the Beetlejuice about?"

"You know, I have no clue. Twice earlier today he said that to me followed by something else. Like he said it and told me I would go out to eat to celebrate with them after that meeting and then later at my place he called me and said it and then told my I should calm down." Paige told him.

Katharine looked over, "Wait, he told you Beetlejuice and then gave you a command?"

Paige shrugged, "Basically."

Cabe looked at Katharine, "What is it?"

"I'm not positive but that sounds like some kind of hypnotic control. Sometimes they can imbed a control word that they can use to give you further instructions." Katharine told them.

"You're saying he hypnotized me and has been controlling me with this word?" Paige asked.

"I'm not sure, but it sounds like it. I'm going to have a staff psychologist come out tomorrow and talk with you both and see if he can figure it out and when Toby might have hypnotized you and break it. Cabe will be with you to make sure you feel safe." Katharine told them as she made a note in her phone.

"So he can call me back and say that word and give me a command now?" Paige asked.

Katharine shook her head, "I would say that something that you experienced before the first time you remember him saying the control word probably broke the trance and control word. He won't be able to hypnotize you again either most likely. But we still need to be sure there aren't any lingering commands."


	7. Chapter 7

The door opened and a middle aged woman in scrubs stepped into the waiting room, "I'm Dr. Evans, you're Mr. O'Brien's family?"

Cabe gently woke up Allie as Paige slipped out from under Ralph and they both stepped up along with Katharine. Cabe asked, "We are, how is Walter?" Allie stepped up and Cabe put his arm around her.

She smiled, "Walter pulled through quite well. But we are a long ways from being out of the woods. But I am very hopeful." She gestured at some chairs away from Ralph as he still slept.

After they had sat down, "Walter's got a rough road ahead of him. Did the cardiologist see you yet?"

They all shook their heads.

"He may have gotten called on to another case. Our first hurdle is going to be infections. Depending on how his body responds not only to the infection but the antibiotics. We had to replace almost half of his blood which will hinder his body in responding to the infections. It's got to replace the normal amount of white blood cells it's also got to produce all the ones needed to fight the infections. We've got him on a couple of drugs to help boost production. His heart did stop twice today and because of the low amount of blood there is concern of possible heart damage so over the next couple of days there will be some tests to check cardio function and the cardiologist will want to monitor him for at least a year. We're going to be using a ventilator to help him breathe and until we know how the infections play out we'll keep him on it and we'll keep him in a medically induced coma probably for at least seven days."

"What about his hands? One of Walter's main skills is computer programming? The nurse said she thought there wouldn't be any nerve damage." Paige asked.

Dr Evans smiled, "His hands are going to be perfectly fine. I've done my best to minimize any scars but I detected no nerve damage in them. He'll have a small scar over his left eye and after the swelling goes down you shouldn't detect any difference with his nose, so he'll still look like you remember."

"What about his feet and legs?" Cabe asked.

Dr Evans frowned, "Well his legs are going to be fine, he'll have a lot of small scars but his feet are troubling. He won't lose them or anything like that but there could be significant nerve damage. Whatever happened to damage them was significant. It's going to come down to infection. If there is no infection I'd say he has an eighty five percent chance of normal nerve functioning, only a fifteen percent chance of nerve damage. But if there is significant infection issues that could easily reverse. But that wouldn't be the biggest concern at that point. He could suffer organ damage if that's the case and while he could live using a wheelchair to get around, organ damage could drastically shorten his life. But we are going to stay on top of this."

"Dr Evans, I'm Katharine Cooper, security Director and acting Director of Homeland, Walter is a top level government asset. He is first and foremost a friend and loved one to all of us here. He was instrumental in stopping a known terrorist today as well as saving a kidnap victim and two Homeland agents so Homeland is going to be all over his medical care so you do everything you can think of to successfully treat him. Failure in this case is not an option."

Paige smiled at Katharine with gratitude.

"We will, I promise. If you want I can take two of you back at this time to see him before we get him moved up to his room. Because of the heart concerns he'll be in the Heart ICU. The young boy won't be permitted up there, I'm sorry." Dr Evans told them.

Katharine shook her head, "No, he will be allowed to visit his Dad and if you need me to go tell the hospital administrator I can certainly do that. Also make sure there is a spare bed in the room so Paige can stay with him if she wants too." She said as she put her arm around Paige.

Dr Evans nodded, "I'll certainly see what I can do and I will pass your message on to admin. Who would like to go back first?"

"Cabe, you and Paige should go. You're his family; I'll stay here with Ralph." Allie told him.

"I'll go with you Dr and speak to these admin officials to make sure there are no problems." Katharine told her.

* * *

Paige shrank mentally as she slowly walked into the small cubicle like area as she saw they had Walter connected to all kinds of machines monitoring almost every aspect of his bodily functions. The scariest one to her though was the ventilator.

Cabe stopped dead as soon as he turned the corner around the partition, "Oh man, this is even scarier than when I was with my daughter right before the end." His voice trembled as he spoke and he had tears in his eyes.

Paige looked back and he could see the same fear in her eyes as she slowly stepped back and forced a smile at Cabe and took his hand, and hugged him with her free arm, "I'm right here Cabe, we'll support each other."

Cabe nodded as he kissed her forehead and slowly stepped forward with her. He stood next to Walter's hips and let her stand next to his shoulders. "I'm so glad you are here, I don't think I could face this without you kid." Cabe told her as she smiled at him.

Paige looked at her watch and saw it was just past midnight, "Good morning love," she stretched out over the side of the bed and kissed his cheek. "Thank you for coming back to us. Cabe is here next to me, Ralph is in the waiting room with Allie sleeping. Katharine is working on whipping the hospital into compliance. She doesn't want you getting a bigger head than you already have so don't tell her I told you that."

Cabe laughed as Paige forced herself to make small stupid jokes to try and bring some relief to their anxiety of Walter's condition. Just seeing him lying there unable to acknowledge them or speak was like a knife in their gut.

"Apparently Collins had recorded all the video and conversations you had with him. The news somehow got a copy and they have been playing it over and over. Ralph had a good time seeing Cabe get beaned by that trap. Ralph and I have a bet, he thinks you knew the door ram was lying on that trap and that's why you asked Cabe to pick it up so you wouldn't get hit by the trap. I said you didn't realize it and it was just an accident." She told him running one hand through his hair and holding his hand with the other.

Cabe laughed but rubbed the back of his head.

"Katharine said she was going to get me a personal copy of your answer to Collins about why I was important to you. I was never more moved or honored by anything else in my life. Maybe you could use those words at our wedding, what do you think?"

Paige looked over at Cabe and smiled, "That's right, I'm proposing to you right here, right now and in front of Cabe as a witness. No take backs, no do overs. So, if you really meant what you said to Collins and you still want me, I'm right here and you just have to wake up and tell me yes, because I am going to want you for the rest of my life."

Cabe smiled and gave her a one arm hug, "Hey kid, thank you. Thank you for being there for me, thank you for caring enough about others that you risked so much to stop Collins and saved Ted and Florence. We got a lot to talk about when you are ready to wake up. I know you already know Carlson was in it with Collins, but the powers that be made Katharine acting Director and when she ordered Carlson arrested he drew his gun and was immediately taken out by other agents. I would have done it myself but someone stole my gun. And speaking of stealing my things, we need to have a conversation about you stealing and wrecking my SUV. What do you think your punishment should be for that?" Cabe smiled with a tear in his eye.

"I think we should take away his computer access for at least a week." Paige told him.

Cabe laughed, "We could make him calculate and recite pi to the 363rd position."

Paige giggled, "Maybe force him to take Ralphy to the natural science museum."

Cabe wiped a tear from his eye, "I'm beginning to think we're naming things he would be agreeable with."

"Sounds good to me," Katharine said as she stepped in. "Paige, keep my card with you at all times, if anyone gives you any grief and Cabe isn't here, you have them call me. Keep this letter with you too. It gives you authority to bring Ralph back to wherever Walter is."

Paige hugged her, "Thank you," she told her as she took both items and folded them and put them in her shirt pocket.

"Cabe, I'm heading home for the night and I am leaving you in charge here. I'll call you tomorrow morning for an update after I get things sorted at Homeland." Katharine told him. She stopped as she started to turn, "Oh, I got some bad news to tell you. Freddie didn't make it. The bullet hit his aorta and he bled out before they got to the hospital."

Paige broke down and cried and Cabe hugged her tightly. "Where's his body? I'd like to make arrangements for a proper burial, I'm not going to let them just toss him into a furnace." Cabe told her.

Katharine nodded, "He's downstairs in the morgue here."

"Thank you Katharine for everything, have a good night," Cabe told her.

Cabe continued to hug Paige as he looked down at Walter, "Almost looks like he is just sleeping huh? Well except for that damn tube coming out of his mouth."

Paige looked down and nodded.

"If you're okay, I'm going to step downstairs and check on Freddie to make sure nothing happens to him." Cabe told her.

Paige smiled and nodded.

* * *

The morgue attendant looked up as Cabe walked in, "Can I help you?"

Cabe pulled out his badge, "Agent Cabe Gallo, Homeland, I want to see Freddie, the homeless man that they brought in today. Gunshot wound to the abdomen."

The attendant looked at him oddly trying to rectify a Homeland badge with scrubs. Cabe seemed to immediately realize what his issue was, "Don't worry about it. My clothes were covered in blood."

He nodded and got up and took him over to a table and pulled the sheet back exposing Freddie's head and shoulders.

A tear escape Cabe's eye as he looked down at him, "Thanks Freddie, we were able to save Florence and we put an end to the threat of the lunatic that shot you." Cabe looked at the attendant, "I need the paperwork to take responsibility for Freddie's burial."

The man looked surprised but nodded as he turned to retrieve the paperwork. Cabe looked down and saw Freddie had a tattoo on his chest a little lower under the sheet and he pulled the sheet down a little further and saw a US Flag and written under it 'USCGC Campbell (WPG-32) 1962-1966'

Cabe raised his voice, "Hey, did you guys run his prints?"

The man walked back around, "I don't think they did why?"

"Because, he's got a tattoo on his chest of a US Coast Guard ship, he's a veteran." Cabe told him.

"Sorry, I'm just paid to watch over the morgue during off hours." The man told him.

Cabe shook his head and pulled out his phone and snapped a picture of Freddie's face and turned his hand over, "Here, hold his thumb out so I can get a good shot of his thumb print." The man reached out and took Freddie's wrist and pulled back on his thumb and Cabe was able to take a good picture of his print. He pulled up forensics and hit dial.

After speaking with a tech he sent the two photos to them and stood there waiting for them to call him back. The guy looked at Cabe, "Did you still want these forms?"

Cabe took the forms and the guy finally walked back to his desk and sat down and started reading again.

About fifteen minutes later his phone rang with Freddie's full identity and Cabe called his VA contact and after apologizing for calling so late he gave him Freddie's information. He walked over and nudged the guy as he sat there reading. "Don't let them do anything with Freddie; the VA will be here in the morning to take care of him."

* * *

Paige kissed the side of Walter's face, "I'll see you in a little bit baby, they're going to take you to your room now. I'll bring Ralph in there to say goodnight to you too. He's really missed you baby." She kissed him again and held his hand for a moment and then watched as they wheeled him down the hallway. Sighing she turned and slowly walked back towards the little waiting room.

"Hey kid," Cabe called out as he saw Paige walking away.

Paige turned and smiled, "Hey Cabe, they're taking Walter to his room. I was going to go get Ralph."

Cabe nodded as he stepped up next to her and they walked on to the waiting room. "You want me to take Ralph home with me for the night?" Cabe asked her.

Paige smiled and nodded, "I want to let him see Walter first if you don't mind?"

Cabe smiled and shook his head, "I don't mind. We'll run by your place and pick him up some clothes tonight and I'll drop him off at school tomorrow unless you want me to bring him here?"

Paige smiled, "I think it might be best to keep him on his schedule. What about Freddie?"

Cabe smiled, "Turns out Freddie was in the Coast Guard, served thirty years and retired honorably. He was a Master Chief boatswain's mate. Talked to a buddy of mine at the VA, he knew Freddie quite well. Was really sad to hear he died but said that was just like Freddie. He said about ten years ago Freddie stopped a mugging downtown and was hit by a car chasing after the punk and he suffered a head injury and he wasn't quite the same man after that. They'd work and get him in some place and within a month or two he'd be back out on the street."

"Poor Freddie," Paige sighed. "Is the VA going to take care of his arrangements?"

Cabe nodded, "They'll pick him up tomorrow and have a full honor guard service for him in a few days."

"I'd like to go if you don't mind taking me?" Paige whispered.

Cabe nodded.


	8. Chapter 8

Ralph's teacher found him to be almost back to his normal self and she marveled at the transformation so much she finally called him out into the hallway. "Ralph, I am so happy to see you so happy today. Are things better at home?"

Ralph nodded and then considered that, "Well, yes and no."

She frowned, "Do you care to elaborate?"

Ralph smiled, "My Dad is back in my life and it seems like my Mom will be getting back together with him. The bad thing is, did you see the news last night about the terrorist and Homeland?"

She nodded wondering how the two things intersected.

"Walter O'Brien is my Dad, the part that isn't better is he is very sick and in the hospital right now. Things aren't too positive but the Dr is optimistic depending on infection. And my Mom is committed to making up with Dad." Ralph told her.

"Your Dad is Walter O'Brien? Well isn't that something. I'm glad you have hope again Ralph." She told him after giving him a hug.

* * *

Paige sat in the waiting room with Cabe, holding his hand tightly as her knee was bouncing up and down in a nervous fit as the psychologist explained what she was going to do.

She looked at Paige's knee, "Paige, this won't work very well with you so nervous. What can I do to help you relax?"

"I'm sorry; I'm not trying to be. I'm just really worried right now about what Toby might have actually made me do and I don't even know it. How much of the last couple of weeks was me and how much was him manipulating me. What if he made me do something illegal? What if he is the reason I blew up at Walter? What if he wasn't the reason? Did he make me have sex with him? Lord, I am just so worried." Paige told her.

"So you're not worried about me making you do something you don't want to do?" Dr Anning asked.

Paige shook her head no, "Besides I trust Cabe to protect me."

Dr Anning nodded, "Okay, let's begin then. Paige I want you to close your eyes and think of a place that brings a smile to your face..."

"Is she under?" Cabe asked.

Dr Anning nodded, "That actually was a lot smoother than I figured it would be. Paige, I want you to remember back to the other day, you had just exited the job interview following your first meeting with Walter finding out about Centipede Partners. What happened?"

Paige nodded, "I was so nervous, so sick to my stomach over what we had done to Walter, I ran to the bathroom and threw up. I couldn't handle the hurt I saw in Walter's eyes. I had wanted to run to him and apologize but I couldn't."

"Why couldn't you go apologize to him?" Dr Anning asked.

"Toby wouldn't let me." Paige told her.

"How did he stop you?" Dr Anning asked.

"He told me I would take a seat and get them that job." Paige told her.

"That's all he said? Why did that make you do that?" Dr Anning asked.

"He said Beetlejuice, I have to do what he says when he tells me Beetlejuice." Paige told her.

"Shortly after that meeting did Toby say Beetlejuice to you again?" Dr Anning asked.

Paige nodded, "When we were in the car, he wanted me to go out to eat with them to celebrate getting the job."

"And you didn't feel compelled to do that?" She asked.

Paige shook her head.

Dr Anning looked at her, "What happened after you got sick and before he told you Beetlejuice again"

"They were laughing and carrying on making fun of Walter and the pain that he had just experienced when he realized we'd started our own company to compete against him and that we had already won a contract he was suppose to bid on this week. It was really pissing me off." Paige told her.

Dr Anning nodded, "That must be what broke the trigger; the actions finally went past her comfort level. Because she was so upset with Walter she was willing to go a bit further than normal but that went beyond that point."

"So could Toby get her alone and start this all over again?" Cabe asked.

"No, Paige has no trust in him now. If he tried now she'd probably do serious violence against him. She might be inclined to do that if she just saw him." Dr Anning told him.

"Paige, I want you to think back, think back to the first time Toby ever mentioned the word Beetlejuice to you. Do you remember that day?" Dr Anning asked.

"It was two days after I broke up with Walter; he came over with Happy and Sylvester." Paige told her.

Cabe got mad, "Those bastards knew he did this to her?"

Dr Anning held up her hand, "Paige, what did Happy and Sylvester say when Toby told you Beetlejuice?"

Paige shook her head, "Nothing, they were sleeping."

"They were sleeping? How do you know?" Dr Anning asked.

"Toby told all three of us to sleep." Paige told her.

Cabe rubbed his chin, 'My Lord, his own wife?' Cabe shook his head at that thought.

"Paige, after Toby told you to sleep and before you saw Walter yesterday, did Toby ever tell you to do something illegal?" Dr Anning asked.

Paige shook her head no.

Dr Anning nodded, "Did Toby ever tell you to do something you wouldn't want to tell Cabe you did?"

Paige shook her head.

"Paige, have you ever been naked in front of Toby?" Dr Anning asked.

Paige's lip curled in disgust and shook her head.

"Paige did Toby ever try to get you to have sex with him?" Dr Anning asked.

Paige shuddered and shook her head vehemently.

"Okay Paige, I'm going to count backwards from five. At each number you are going to wake up a little more until I reach one and then you will be completely awake and you will remember every time Toby used the word Beetlejuice and what he told you to do. When you awaken you will remember everything I have asked and the truth of your answers. Five, four – you are starting to wake up, three – you are beginning to feel the pressure of the couch against you, two – you can feel Cabe's hand in yours now, one – you are awake." Dr Anning told her.

Paige's eyes opened and tears ran down her cheeks, "How could he do that to me? Walter was supposed to be his friend, how could he do that against him?" She turned to Cabe and hugged him tightly, "Oh Cabe."

"I'm convinced you will be fine as far as the hypnotism is concerned, but this betrayal of your trust is going to be a tougher issue. I'll talk to Director Cooper when I get back and I'm going to recommend I work with you for a few times a week for awhile. I think you will need the support for dealing with this." Dr Anning told her.

Paige could only nod as she clung to Cabe, as he had his arms protectively around her.

* * *

"What did you do Toby?" Sylvester asked him.

"Why are you blaming me? All I know is she called me last night and told me to shove Centipede Partners up my ass, she quits." Toby told him.

"Well this is a disaster; maybe we should go over to her place and talk to her?" Happy asked.

"Well we should tell her we'll hold her against her contract for five years if she doesn't come back?" Sylvester said.

"You mean this contract she hadn't signed yet? Toby asked after he pulled it from her filing cabinet.

"Wait, if she didn't sign that, she could demand her initial ten grand back." Sylvester said.

"Not good," Happy said.

"Okay, so let's go over to her place and talk with her." Toby finally said.

* * *

They stood on her door step for over twenty minutes knocking every five minutes without Paige ever coming to the door. "You want me to pick the lock? Maybe she's in trouble?" Happy asked looking at her car in her parking space.

Toby looked around and nodded.

Happy pulled out her lock picks and quickly unlocked the door and they entered. They looked around but couldn't find her anywhere. "This is damn peculiar, her car is here, why isn't she here?" Happy said as she came back to the front room from her bedroom.

"Ralph's room looks a little messier than normal; several of his dresser drawers were left open." Sylvester reported.

"You think Walter or Cabe came over and picked her up?" Happy asked.

"Walter, unlikely, Cabe maybe," Toby answered.

Toby pulled out his phone and called Cabe.

* * *

Cabe pulled his phone out and looked at it, 'Know it All', "Speak of the devil," Cabe started to hit answer.

"Wait," Dr Anning stopped him, "Don't let on that we know the truth. We don't want to tip our hand."

Cabe nodded as he hit answer, "Hey Toby, everything okay?"

"Hey Cabe, not really, Paige called last night to quit our company and we came over today and she's no where to be found but her car is here at her place." Toby told him.

"Huh, that's odd. She didn't say anything to me about quitting and she didn't say she'd be somewhere else." Cabe told him being careful not to lie so Toby could pick up on it. "I'll make some calls and see if I can track her down. You want me to have her call you if I do?"

"That would be great, just have her call one of us so we know she is okay, thanks Cabe." Toby told him as he hung up.

"How much you want to bet they broke into my place looking for me?" Paige asked.

Cabe nodded, "Probably."

"If we're done here, I'm going back to Walter's room, I've been gone too long as it is." Paige told them.

"That's fine Paige but you got to remember to take time for yourself. Walter will be in a medical coma for a week, he's not going to know you are there and you are going through a lot of personal things right now so you need to take care of you." Dr Anning told her.

Paige smiled, "Thanks, I might go home for a little while tonight, I need to empty that mop bucket and finish that load of laundry and make sure the blood got out of the clothes. I probably should go check on Ferret Bueller as well."

Cabe nodded, "We took care of the bucket and I checked the clothes, they're fine and in the dryer, but I can take you wherever you want to go."

Paige smiled at Cabe. She looked up and she saw Florence walking towards the waiting room.

* * *

"Hey Florence," Cabe greeted her as she walked in.

"Hey Cabe, Paige, I just came up to check on Walter. Ted and I were worried we hadn't heard anything from you." Florence told them

Paige smiled, "Sorry Florence, it's been a little hectic this morning. Why don't you have a seat and tell us how Ted is?"

Florence sat down and Dr Anning excused herself, "I've got to get back to Homeland. It was really good meeting you Paige and I will call you to check on a good time to come back."

Paige smiled, "Thank you Dr Anning."

"How's Ted doing?" Paige asked Florence as she turned to face her on the couch.

"He's doing really well. They'll probably keep him a couple of more days and then send him to rehab for a month or so. How's Walter?" Florence asked.

"Well the surgeon last night was optimistic as far as hid wounds are concerned. She said Walter had lost almost half of his blood which may cause a lot of problems. His heart stopped twice yesterday so they are concerned about damage to it as well. They're going to start some cardio tests tomorrow and they'll leave him in a medical coma for a week at least." Paige told her.

Florence sighed, "I'm really sorry Paige."

Cabe looked over at her, "Florence, you know what Walter said."

Florence nodded, "But I have to Cabe for good or bad. I already told Ted, I need to be honest with Paige, she deserves to know the truth."

Paige looked from Cabe to Florence and back again, "The truth about what? What's going on Cabe?"

Cabe sighed.

"Paige, all of this, is partly my fault. I allowed Collins to use me to strike at you guys. He'd offered me the proxy of his shares of my company which would allow me to regain control of my company if I would just feed him information about Scorpion and then to orchestrate your break up with Walter. And then to help torment Walter by writing those horrible words on the side of the Garage." Florence told her everything with tears running down her face the whole time.

"You wrote those disgusting words to the man I love to torment him for that sicko's pleasure?" Paige screamed.

Before Cabe could react Paige threw her best haymaker and hit Florence in the left eye knocking her off the couch they were on. She jumped up fully intent on jumping on top of Florence and continuing to beat her when Cabe grabbed her. "Kid, Walter basically forgave her."

"Good for him, I sure as hell don't now let go of me." Paige screamed.

Florence held her face, "Please let her go Cabe, this is the very least I deserve. I was a horrible person."

"Damn it Cabe, do your job and arrest this bitch, you heard her confession, she's a terrorist." Paige spit at her.

"Paige, kid, listen to me, I fully intended on arresting her last weekend when Walter figured it out. But he refused to cooperate." Cabe told her.

"Good for him, I'll testify to what she just said." Paige continued to scream and kick at Florence.

"Paige, he didn't want to press charges, as much pain as he was in he knew that Ted had begun to develop strong feelings for her and he told me that he didn't want Ted to go through the pain that he was going through with you being gone." Cabe told her.

Paige quit fighting and turned, "But that wouldn't have happened if she hadn't of caused it."

"I know, its circular logic, but Walter refuses to follow circular logic and just look at the fact that he didn't want Ted in that pain. I didn't like it; I nearly broke her arm over it." Cabe told her. "After he said we weren't to talk about it after that day and he even erased the evidence that Collins had that she had been his accomplice. Well or so he thought, there was an audio file between Collins and Carlson that told the truth to Cooper."

"Cooper knows about this bitch? And she didn't arrest her?" Paige said unbelieving what she heard.

"She told me if it hadn't been for Walter's desire to protect Ted she'd have me dragged out to the desert and buried alive up to my neck to die." Florence told her in a very small voice.

"Shut up, I don't want to hear your two faced mouth. I can't believe I forgave you because you defended me to that pig. Or did you do it thinking maybe somehow I would find out about that and forgive you? No, don't answer I don't want to hear your lies." Paige yelled.

"Kid, I get it, I really do, but ask yourself this. In a week when Walter is awake again, do you want him to know you pressed me into arresting her and hurting Ted? Do you think he would understand and forgive you or do you really want to take that chance?" Cabe asked.

Paige glared at Cabe for a moment and then turned to look at Florence, "I want your key to the Garage immediately and then don't you ever, ever darken our lives again."

Florence nodded and pulled out her small purse and opened it and pulled the key out and gave it to her, "Just so you know, I stopped by this morning to feed and give water to Bueller."

"Just get the hell out of here, now." Paige almost screamed after ripping the key away from her.


	9. Chapter 9

**In case there is any other confusion about the AU's I've written I just wanted to remind you that his story doesn't lead back to Graduation. Graduation is AU 37 and this one is AU 38. I think the confusion might be because both this AU and Graduation have a common root which is the Prequel story chapters 1-32. So when I go back to the Prequel and start chapter 33 it will be different from this AU's chapter 1. I hope that helps! To the Adventure! -Tim**

* * *

Florence slowly walked into Ted's room as he was practicing his shoulder exercises, he looked up and smiled and slowly his smile turned into a frown, "Florence, what the hell? Who hit you?" He demanded.

Florence smiled at him as she shook her head, "It doesn't matter, I deserved it and a lot more."

"Like hell you do. Who did it? I'll kick the crap out of them." Ted said angrily.

Florence shook her head, "I had to tell Paige the truth, just like I had to tell you and I deserved whatever she wanted to do to me for what I did to her and Walter, especially Walter."

"Wait, Paige did that to you?" Ted asked shocked.

Florence nodded, "Walter may be in a lot of trouble health wise." She filled him in on Walter's condition as he gently caressed her cheek.

* * *

Paige was still fuming and she was trying unsuccessfully to walk that energy off walking around Walter's room. After about forty minutes she finally stopped at the foot of his bed and turned to face him.

Katharine Cooper stepped just inside the door as she heard Paige speak. "How could you do it Walter? How could you defend and protect that bitch? You knew what she had cost us, you. And then you risked everything to save her from that lunatic?" Paige began crying, "Why didn't you call me? I know I hadn't been answering your calls, but you could have left me a voicemail, you could have told me the truth about what she did. I might have still been mad you didn't tell me about going to the lecture with her but damn it Walter that would have made a huge difference. To know she manipulated you, us. To know what horrible messages she wrote to hurt you, Walter those words crushed me. You are loved, you are so worthy of love, you should have called me about that too, I would never have come back to you out of pity, I would have been there out of pure love, because you deserve it."

Paige slowly walked up beside him and looked down at him, "Baby, I wish you could talk to me. Cabe said you did it to protect Ted and I commend you on that, you are always putting others first." She lifted his hand and kissed the bandage over it. "Now I need you to fight, if you want Ralph, if you want me back in your life you have got to fight for it. Because I need you back in my life, when you died at my place, Lord, Walter every horrible thing I said to you, every time I had ignored your calls, every doubt I had rushed back at me accusing me. You dying devastated me, I can't live this life without you I might as well try to live without air to breathe, I need you. As you laid there dead I finally had to admit how empty my life was without you in it. Ralph is the sun of my life, but Walter you are the landscape, I can't live without you, because everything else in my life would be barren."

"I hear you are mad at me," Katharine spoke up from the doorway.

Paige jumped and turned and stared at her. "Hell yea I am damn it." Paige started.

Katharine held up her hand and closed the door, "Sorry to interrupt but I don't want anyone hearing our conversation and I wasn't sure how long you might be talking to Walter and I have to get back to Homeland before too long. Paige, I get it and I don't blame you. If you want to be mad at me I'll accept it but I chose to honor what Walter wanted done. For good or bad, I could end up going to prison myself over it, that's how serious I take what he decided to do."

"So you are here to try and guilt me into forgiving her?" Paige demanded.

"Hell no, to hell with the bitch, I'm glad you decked her. I'm just sorry I didn't get to see it and that Cabe stopped you from beating the crap out of her further. Well part of me is glad, I'm sure if the hospital authorities had seen it they could have caused a lot of problems for you and I wouldn't want that. Walter didn't do it for her; he did it for Ted, an innocent of the situation. But you are looking at this from a binary thinking, probably because Walter is more binary or he use to be, before you." Katharine told her.

Katharine walked over to the other side of his bed and looked down at him and smiled, "He is quite handsome, brilliant, brave, selfless, and dependable in every way, except maybe emotions. But he is getting better emotionally. Maybe he won't get as far as most but he loves you beyond measure. Some of his actions when you were dating Tim might have been juvenile but they were all born out of his frustration of loving you and not being able to show it. Did you know he finally was able to open up and tell Cabe he loved him?"

Paige shook her head.

Katharine smiled, "Remember when you guys had to save Cabe's life when that piece of metal sliced through his aorta? When Cabe woke up Walter was sitting there next to him and he tried telling Cabe how he felt and Cabe told him it was okay, he knew he cared about him and Walter said it was more than that, that he loved him. That's why Walter left suddenly, it wasn't to talk with the Drs. He didn't want to be judged for his feelings by the rest of you. It's never been that Walter didn't have the emotions we have, he always has he just buried them and so they became stunted."

"Growing up, people teased and tormented him when he tried to express his intellect, now imagine how he would feel if he was to reveal his feelings and he was teased and tormented over them, rather than dealing with that, he shut himself off from them as best as he could. Our feelings are personal, they make us us, his intellect is amazing but it isn't him, that's what his sister was always trying to teach him. I think she would be pretty amazed and thankful to you for where Walter is emotionally today." Katharine told her.

"If you want him to grow more, when he wakes up and he will wake up, give him a safe place to reveal his emotions, he'll stumble, he'll falter and he may take 100 steps backwards for every step forward." Katharine told her.

Paige looked shocked, "H-how do you know about that?"

"You were on coms, Toby had written it up in his medical report." Katharine told her.

"What? Why wasn't I told about him making secret reports?" Paige fumed.

Katharine looked surprised, "They weren't secret, and part of the Homeland contract required his medical reports. I didn't know he wasn't filing a copy of them with you though. But that's the sort of thing you'll need to avoid moving forward. Think about how much progress he made after you guys started working privately after you were rescued from the buoy. I don't and I do envy you to be honest. I don't because I know how much work it has been and how much more it's going to be, but I do because I already know just how much and how fiercely he loves you and what woman wouldn't want her lover to love her that way?"

Paige looked down at Walter and smiled as she nodded her head.

Katharine asked, "Still mad at me?"

Paige shook her head.

Katharine smiled, "Good, just trust that Walter was trying to do the right thing and I approved Dr Anning to come work with you so she should be calling you sometime to set up some time. You can do it wherever you feel the most comfortable and if you need Cabe to be there you are more than welcome to have him with you."

Paige smiled, "Thank you for everything Katharine."

* * *

Cabe sat outside of Ralph's school waiting for his class to be dismissed when he noticed the green car back in the parking lot. At first it didn't register as a red flag until he noticed it was a rental car. It was too far back to pick up any facial features with the tinted glass so he wasn't sure who it was but now his curiosity was raised.

He smiled as he heard a young voice call out, "Grandpa!"

He looked and saw Ralph running for his car and he hit the button to unlock the doors and Ralph quickly climbed in and started putting on his seatbelt. Cabe locked the doors back and took off as he asked, "How was school?"

Ralph smiled, "Good, how's Dad?"

Cabe smiled, "No changes yet but they are drawing blood ever few hours checking for infections and white cell production."

Ralph nodded, "Can we go by the Garage first? Since Dad is going to be in the hospital for awhile I'd like to grab something to put in his room for when he wakes up."

Cabe noticed that the green car left shortly after they had and he was sure no kids had gone over to it. "Sure Ralph, we can do that." Cabe told him.

"What are you looking at so hard Grandpa?" Ralph asked not turning to look.

"A green rental car, it arrived shortly after I had and it was back far enough I couldn't see who was in it and it took off after us and I am sure no kids had gotten in." Cabe told him.

Ralph nodded and pulled out his tablet and pointed the camera at the passenger side mirror and snapped a picture, "It's too far back with that tinted glass to tell, but I think I can see it's an Enterprise rental." He tapped into the SUV's wifi and connected to the internet and hacked into the Enterprise rental computer, "They've got four vehicles that model and color in the LA area rented out right now. One of them is rented to I. P. Knightly." Ralph looked at Cabe and they both said at the same time, "Toby."

"I'm going to pull him over and kick his," he paused looking at Ralph.

Ralph prompted, "Ass?"

Cabe laughed. "Don't tell your mother. I think he is trying to figure out where your Mom is."

"Wait I got another idea," Ralph told him as he started hacking the car's computer and shifted the car into neutral while ramping up the RPM of the engine until the engine blew. "I hope he bought the extra insurance," Ralph told Cabe.

Cabe laughed as Ralph told him what he had done to the car.

* * *

"Hey, since we're here, we should probably check to make sure Bueller is okay." Cabe called out to Ralph as he looked around and didn't see him. "Ralph? Where are you son?"

"I'm up in the loft Grandpa, I'll be right down," Ralph yelled back.

Cabe walked over and looked into Bueller's cage as Bueller chattered at him as he was bored with no one being around or playing with him. But he saw he had water and food "Sorry kid, I'm not about to open that door, if you got away and got lost or hurt, Walter would hate me. You're just going to have to be bored." Cabe told him.

Bueller chattered angrily at his words.

Cabe walked back to out to Walter's desk and saw Ralph coming down the ramp slowly. Cabe asked, "What have you got there son?"

"I wanted to take my drawing I made for Dad and when I found it I saw he had this really great portrait of the three of us that Dad had blown up. I think it would be good for Mom to see it too." Ralph told him as Cabe came over and helped him.

Cabe nodded, "That's a great drawing, That's Walter pushing you in a swing with Paige watching, is she suppose to be holding something?"

Ralph nodded, "I ran out of time on it, she was suppose to be holding my baby brother, or sister. That's why I only got a B+ on it because it wasn't finished on time.

Cabe smiled at Ralph, "That is a great portrait of you guys, I need to get a copy to put in my wallet."

Ralph laughed, "I don't think it would fit in your wallet Grandpa."

Cabe laughed and messed his hair, "Okay wise guy, a wallet sized version."

* * *

As Cabe was locking up the Garage, "Uh, Grandpa, Happy and Sylvester are here." Ralph told him.

Cabe turned and saw them parked in Happy's normal spot, "Get in the SUV Ralph, I'll be right back." Cabe hit his remote unlocking the doors and after Ralph put the two items in back safely he got into the front and Cabe locked the SUV again and walked over to Happy. "Can I help you guys?" Cabe asked.

"Yea, we're still waiting to hear from the waitress." Happy told him.

Cabe shrugged, "Sorry, she said she wasn't interested but she's fine. Oh, by the way, did you guys turn in your keys for the Garage? If not, I'll take them now and I want Toby's and any copies any of you have made."

"If Walter wants his keys he can come out and ask for them himself." Happy told him.

Cabe shook his head, "Nope, he's busy elsewhere. You guys quit and left him so hand them over. Or I can call for a cruiser to come over and take you into custody."

Sylvester asked, "On what charges?"

"Whatever charges I want to tell him to take you in on," Cabe answered him.

They begrudgingly gave him their keys, "Tell Toby I want his ASAP."

Happy started her truck and took off.

Cabe walked over and opened his door, "Do you know how to change the pass codes to Walter's alarm?"

Ralph nodded and got out of the SUV and Cabe let him back in and Ralph quickly disabled all but one pass code and changed that one to a number he was sure they couldn't figure out and wrote it down for Cabe in his notepad.

* * *

As Cabe and Ralph entered Walter's room they found Paige and his nurse giving Walter a sponge bath. Ralph looked up at Cabe, "I think we should have knocked first. I didn't need to see this."

Cabe laughed, and Paige looked back with her cheeks glowing red, "Sorry ladies, we'll be down in the waiting room." Cabe told them.

Paige had a slight blush on her face still as she entered the waiting room ten minutes later. "Sorry guys, it was taking you so long I thought we had time to finish before you got back.

Cabe laughed again, "No worries, we had a run in with the guys a couple of times and Ralph wanted to pick up a couple of things from the Garage for Walter's room."

Paige smiled, "What have you got there Ralphy?"

Ralph handed her his drawing that Walter had framed, "Oh Ralph, this looks so amazing in person, Walter's phone camera didn't do it justice." She hugged him tightly. "What's this other one?"

Ralph held it up and turned it around and watched as tears ran down her cheeks, "It's beautiful, wherever did you get it?"

"It was in Dad's bedroom along with my drawing." Ralph told her.

Paige smiled as she stared and studied it and suddenly remembered seeing Florence coming out of the photography studio carrying it that day. "I barely remember posing for it, I remember looking at it in the proofs and Walter and I argued over it for probably thirty minutes when he finally gave in because I didn't want it included in the set. Boy was I wrong, it is so beautiful." Paige said mostly to herself.

"Grandpa said he wanted a copy for his wallet but I told him it wouldn't fit so he said he wanted a wallet sized version." Ralph told her.

Paige laughed, "Well then, we'll have to go get him a copy made won't we?"


	10. Chapter 10

**I'm attempting to create new icons for my stories to help visually denoting what stories belong together. Also not sure there will be a new chapter for this story tomorrow. I've got a one-shot (I believe it is a one-shot) running around my head this morning and this story isn't talking so I may have to write it so this story can talk again. In any case there will be a story tomorrow. To the Adventure! -Tim**

* * *

With Cabe flexing Homeland's muscle Paige was able to direct some maintenance men into rearranging Walter's room so that Ralph's drawing and the family portrait were staring at him lying there in bed. They had pizza together after Allie joined them and Paige insisted that everyone speak at least occasionally to Walter even though the staff assured them that on the drugs he was on he would never remember anything they were saying. Paige didn't care it was important to her since she had ignored him for these past weeks that he be included.

Allie smiled at Ralph who had nodded off for the third time and she whispered softly she was going to the restroom and they should probably get ready to leave soon.

After the door was closed Cabe looked at Paige, "Why were you helping the nurse to bathe Walter?"

Paige blushed, "Well, I know it's just part of their job and maybe I don't have the right anymore at least until he is conscious again, but Walter is mine and I'll be damned if anyone is going to touch him 'there'. If anyone does, it's going to be me."

Cabe smiled with a light laugh thinking back to her getting upset with Sara trying to remove his pants, "I think Walter would actually prefer it if you were the only one to do that area. He probably rather it was only you doing any of that kind of care, he's very self conscious about that."

Paige's smile and shyness melted as she looked up, "Cabe, what do I do about Happy and the guys?" Paige asked seriously.

Cabe shook his head, "I'm not sure sweetheart. What Toby did to you is inexcusable but at the same time he apparently did it to Happy and Sly at the same time. Of course they both walked out on Walter before that but how much of their actions had been directed by Toby I don't know. I've actually talked with Katharine earlier about arresting Toby."

Paige looked puzzled.

"He attacked a government asset, you with his hypnosis and through that directed you to help continue psychological attacks against Walter. Those are federal crimes. I think she is waiting to see how things play out with Dr Anning before deciding." Cabe told her.

"Speaking of Dr Anning, she wants to have a session with me tomorrow at 1 PM; Katharine said I could have you with me if you don't mine." Paige asked shyly.

Cabe smiled, "Kid, I will always do whatever I can for you. So if you want me here tomorrow at 1 PM I'll be here."

Paige got up and hugged Cabe, "Thank you."

* * *

"Can we go back and talk about Toby having hypnotized you?" Ralph asked sitting up straight with anger on his face.

"Ralph, have you been listening to us all this time?" Paige asked shocked.

"After Allie closed the bathroom door I woke up, but it was your talking that fully awakened me. Then I heard you say Toby hypnotized you. What was he trying to get you to do?" Ralph explained.

"Well son, we're not 100% sure. We do know that he was manipulating your Mom to keep her from going back to Walter, it's how he had her convinced that his plan would reset Walter's emotions and that going to see him would break the effect." Cabe told him.

"Which really explains my nervousness about his plan, part of me must have known it was a lie," Paige added.

They saw how angry he was, "All this time we could have been back with Dad after Mom had gotten past being mad at him and Toby kept us away and helped to make what happen to Dad happen. I hate him. I should have made his car pull out into oncoming traffic."

"Ralphy, that's not the way to respond to this. What would your Dad say if he heard you say that?" Paige said scared of Ralph going down a dark path.

Cabe and Ralph both stared at her.

"What?" She asked puzzled looking from one to the other.

Cabe kind of chuckled, "It's the first time I ever heard you refer to Walter as Ralph's Dad or were you talking about Drew?"

"I did?" Paige said confused but then realized she had and slowly nodded. "Well he certainly has been a Dad to Ralph, far more than Drew ever has. Even after coming back into his life Drew has constantly put other things ahead of Ralph, it's no wonder Ralph prefers Walter, and there isn't anything Walter puts ahead of him."

"Well he puts you first a lot of the time, but I'm okay with that because it still includes me." Ralph said with a smile.

"What are we talking about?" Allie asked as she left the restroom.

"Walter for the most part," Cabe told her as she kissed him.

Cabe stood up, "Do you need me to stop by your place tomorrow and bring you anything else?"

Paige smiled, "Well if you don't mind picking me up after dropping Ralph off, I would like to pick up a few things and then run by the Garage and make sure there isn't anything there that needs taken care of."

"Speaking of that, you might want to spend some time with that rat of Walter's. He was pretty upset when we were there, I think he is bored." Cabe told her.

Paige kissed Ralph, "Sleep well and have a good day at school tomorrow. Did you get all your school work done today?"

Ralph smiled and nodded, "I do have a class tomorrow at Caltech."

"We'll get you there baby, I love you." Paige kissed him.

"I love you Mom," he stepped back to Walter's bed and took his hand, "I love you too Dad. Get well soon please."

Paige watched sadly as they left, 'So much nonsense has happen these last two weeks.' She thought to herself as she turned to enter Walter's room and closed the door behind her.

She stepped up to the side of his bed and looked down at Walter and smiled as she ran her fingers through his hair. "I wish you weren't so sick, I'd climb into this bed and cuddle with you. I could really use that right now. I can't believe Toby betrayed us that way, what do I do Walter? I really need your guidance. You always know just what to do. I really love that about you, you might stumble when it comes to emotions but your logic is infallible if not scary at times." She smiled down and then bent down and kissed his cheek as the breathing tube prevented her from kissing his lips.

* * *

Ralph had enjoyed sleeping on Cabe's couch so much that he had begged to sleep there the last two nights. He half dozed until Cabe turned off the news and went to bed and he shook his head and reached over and grabbed his tablet. He pulled up the web browser Walter had designed for masking routing information from any server they accessed and logged into the Garage's VPN and then jumped through Walter's hacking portal and watched as it routed him through twenty different VPNs each one masking the last and then he navigated into the LAPD's computer system and hacked into their databases and he pulled up the biggest driving offender and he proceeded to exchange the offender's information with Toby's on tickets that hadn't been taken care of yet adding offenses to beef up the fines. He corrected dates and times as he recalled when Toby had been out of the Garage by himself so he wouldn't have any witnesses. He smiled looking at the total of all the tickets $12,833. He backed out and logged into the court system and hacked a traffic judge's account and issued an arrest warrant for Toby. As he logged out of the system he smiled, "You're going to rue the day you messed with my family."

* * *

Paige's eyes opened groggily as she was sure she heard someone arguing, she slowly got up and pulled her robe on. Her eyes opened wide at one of the voices announcing it was a Harvard trained Dr. She quickly walked over and opened the door to the hallway and saw two of the nurses arguing with Toby.

"Sir, we don't care what school trained you, you don't have permission to practice in this hospital and it's not visiting hours so you need to leave." The one nurse told him as the other kept blocking him from getting any closer to Walter's room.

"You don't understand, I am his personal physician and I was just made aware of his condition and I need to examine him before I have to be at my practice." Toby tried to tell them.

Something clicked inside of Paige as his voice entered her ears and she growled as she threw the door open and stormed out into the hallway and Toby smiled, "Hey Paige, tell them who I am."

Toby's eyes widened as Paige's face scrunched in anger and she drew back but before he could react she slugged him in his jaw dropping him just like his opponent had done in that smoker. She stood breathing heavily with hatred on her face. The two nurses had looked from him to her back to him and finally back at Paige. Her fists still clinched in rage as she waited almost daring him to get up. Walter's nurse came up and talked calmly to her and gently pulling against her and slowly Paige stepped back away getting closer to Walter's door.

"He is not Walter's personal Dr. He's a damn conman who has done nothing these last two weeks but try and hurt Walter. I want security to throw him out and keep him away from Walter." Paige said between clinched teeth.

The nurse nodded, "Its okay Paige, security is on their way up here. We don't want you getting into any trouble so go back into Walter's room okay? We'll handle it from here."

No one seemed to be moving to help Toby and Toby hadn't moved in almost two minutes and so Paige finally nodded and walked into Walter's room and closed the door. She wasn't taking a chance and so she grabbed one of the chairs and turned it around and pulled it over to the small alcove in the room where the doors to the bathroom and hallway were and sat down staring at the door just daring Toby to try and come in.

* * *

"Cabe, baby, your phone is ringing." Allie said as she nudged Cabe.

Cabe groaned and grabbed his phone and seeing it was 5 AM, "Agent Gallo, Yes, Cabe Gallo, can I help you at 5 AM? What? When?" Cabe ran his hand down his face, "Okay, I'll be there in about thirty minutes." Cabe hit 'disconnect' and put his phone down. "I'm getting too old for this shit." Cabe said as he threw back his cover.

Allie looked at him concerned, "Cabe?"

Cabe shook his head as he sat up on the side of the bed, "Well apparently Toby found out Walter was in the hospital and went there and tried to bluff his way into Walter's room."

"Oh no, Paige, is she okay?" Allie asked concerned.

Cabe laughed, "Yea she's fine. Apparently two of the nurses had stopped him and their arguing woke Paige up. She walked out of Walter's room and slugged him one time and knocked him out cold. Apparently when Toby finally regained consciousness he told security she assaulted him and is trying to press charges. Walter's nurse called me to come down and see what I could do."

Allie rolled her eyes, "What is wrong with him? Why won't he leave them alone?"

Cabe shrugged, "I don't know but when I get down there I'm going to put my foot up his ass."

Allie smiled, "Okay, well protect our girl first."

Cabe smiled as he pulled his pants up and kissed Allie. "Do you mind dropping Ralph off at school for me sweetheart?" Cabe asked.

Allie smiled, "Of course not. I love you Mr. Gallo."

Cabe smiled, "I love you Ms. Jones."

* * *

"So let me get this straight, you are saying you are Dr Tobias Curtis correct?" The officer asked for the fifth time.

"Hello, is this thing on? Yes, and I'm telling you the lunatic in Walter O'Brien's room assaulted me. When are you going to arrest her?" Toby complained.

"Well the problem is no one seems to be able to collaborate your story. The nurses have stated that you tried to sneak your way in when it isn't visiting hours and tried to give them some cockamamie story about being Mr. O'Brien's private Dr. when you passed out on the floor. Have you been popping some pills of some kind? Is that what you were doing here, trying to see if you could sneak into a patient's room and steal some drugs?" The officer asked him.

"What? No, I don't do drugs." Toby told him.

The officer's partner motioned for him to come over, as he stood up he looked at Toby, "Now don't go anywhere."

"Ha ha, very funny," Toby yelled with his hands cuffed behind him.

The officer looked at his partner, "What's up?"

"Well this guy is a Dr but he's got an arrest warrant issued for him for almost $13,000 in unpaid traffic violations. Plus we know this jerk." His partner told him.

The officer looked at his partner, "$13,000? Damn. How do we know him?"

"Remember that guy who wrecked the Porche on the cliff four years ago and the 'genius' that tried to give us a hard time about rescuing him? That's him." His partner told him.

Cabe walked into the security office and Toby's eyes lit up, "Cabe, Cabe man are you a sight for sore eyes, think you can get Barney Fife off my back?"

Cabe walked over to the officers and flashed his badge, "Cabe Gallo, Homeland. What's the problem with this scumbag?"

The officer started, "Well agent Gallo."

Cabe stopped him, "Call me Cabe, no need to be formal between us three. But just so you know I know this scumbag, I'm not saying that to curry favor or anything, just a fact for you."

The officers seemed to relax a little and explained the hospital's complaint against Toby and Toby's statement about being attacked by Paige.

"Well I know Paige Dineen personally, she's a real sweetheart. I'm sure she could probably scratch someone up pretty good but to throw a punch and knock them out? Doubtful, but Walter O'Brien is a top level government asset along with Paige and they have to be protected so whatever you need to do with this guy, do it. As liaison between Homeland and Scorpion I'll sign whatever paperwork you need me to." Cabe told them.

"Wait, that's Walter O'Brien up there, head of team Scorpion? Man what an honor it is. And you get to work with them? Damn that is awesome. Tell me, how did he figure out all those traps?" The officer asked Cabe.

Cabe laughed, "I can't begin to tell you, and I was right there beside him the whole time until I got hit by that trap and knocked out."

The cops laughed, "Oh man, sorry, it looked funny on the TV but that had to hurt man."

Cabe rubbed the back of his head as he laughed again, "It really did. My grandson had a good time laughing at me over it. I still got a good size goose egg back there." Cabe looked at Toby and kind of nodded, "He use to work for Scorpion but he quit about two weeks ago with his wife. I think he might have some kind of vendetta with Walter and Paige.

"Oh really, well do you mind if we collar him then? With a $13,000 arrest warrant on him, arresting him will look good to the brass on top of this." The officer asked.

Cabe shook his head, "He's all yours gentleman, thank you for protecting the hospital and my friends upstairs." Cabe reached out and shook both men's hands.

"You got it Cabe, thank you for all you and Scorpion do. Hey, maybe I could bring my kid by sometime to meet Walter? She has been completely enthralled by what he did. Finally talking about going to college," The officer told him.

Cabe smiled, "Well when they finally wake him up from the medically induced coma I am sure he'd love to meet your girl. Walter is pretty sick right now though."

The officer nodded, "Thank you Cabe, our thoughts and prayers for his recovery then."

"Thank you both," Cabe told them and watched as they walked over and yanked Toby up and dragged him off.


	11. Chapter 11

Paige sat there still staring at the door and she saw the handle turn and she started to prepare to launch herself if Toby walked in and as the door swung open she saw Cabe step in and then she quickly jumped up and ran into his arms and she broke down now that she didn't have to be strong for Walter. Cabe folded his arms around her, "Its okay kid, he's been arrested by LAPD, apparently Toby had a bunch of unpaid traffic tickets and there was a warrant for his arrest."

"Oh Lord, Cabe it was so scary, just like Dr Anning said just the sound of his voice in my ears triggered such a hateful rage, I'd never felt anything like it before. As mad as I was at Florence it didn't even touch the anger I felt at Toby." Paige confessed.

Cabe chucked, "Well he won't be doing anything for a little while anyway. I'm sure he could make bail but I'm going to try and make sure it's either extremely high or denied."

Paige walked over and moved the chair back over beside Walter's bed when she had a horrible thought. "Cabe, the guys are hackers too, what if they infiltrate the hospital computers and alter Walter's file? They could really hurt Walter."

Cabe looked at her as he considered her words and slowly nodded. "Damn, that's a good point. Let's call his nurse."

"Did you need something Paige?" The nurse asked as she entered the room.

"Hey Ruth, this is Cabe Gallo, he's an agent with Homeland that works with Scorpion." Paige introduced them.

"Oh yes, I remember seeing you on the news the other night. How are you?" Ruth asked.

Cabe smiled, "Sore but good. Ruth we got a possible situation. The guy that was here earlier, he and two others use to work for Scorpion and they quit a couple of weeks ago. The problem is, all three of them have skills in hacking and they could easily hack into the hospital's computer system and we're concerned they might try to alter Walter's records that could result in something bad happening. Is there anyway to protect those files, move them to USB drive or maybe getting a hard copy printed and everyone work off the hard copy?"

"Wow, I'm not sure. The hospital system is pretty secure though." Ruth said.

Cabe shook his head, "Not the way these guys hack."

Paige nodded her head in agreement.

"Let me get the charge nurse, he might have more information about this subject." Ruth told them as she left the room.

* * *

They sat waiting for about twenty minutes when another nurse walked in, "Hey guys, I'm Dale, I'm the charge nurse. Ruth told me about the problem. I've printed off a copy of Walter's record. We can post it here at the computer so that everyone can verify the information they read on the screen and update it as needed. I talked to the IT guy that is on duty right now and he claims that the system is impervious to hacking attempts but we understand that Walter is a valuable asset so we want to try and do what we can to ensure his safety."

Cabe nodded, "Thanks Dale, that's appreciated."

Paige looked at Cabe, "You know, if we brought Ralphy in, he could probably do something to make sure they can't access or change Walter's records."

Cabe thought about it for several minutes and slowly nodded his head. "If that's what you want I can head home and bring him back, what about school though?"

"I can call and tell them he won't be in today, I don't like it but I would hate for something to happen to Walter and he could prevent it." Paige told him.

Cabe nodded, "I can get cleaned up while I am home and then we'll come right back. We could probably take him to school after your appointment with Dr Anning and before we go to the Garage. You said something about Caltech today right?"

Paige nodded.

Cabe looked at his watch, "It's a little after 6 AM so we'll be back around 8 AM, do you want me to bring you something to eat?"

Paige shook her head, "I just thought of something, you think we could get a security guard to watch over Walter's room while we're gone this afternoon?"

Cabe considered that, "I might have another idea." Cabe pulled out his phone and called the Homeland switchboard and got patched through to agent Stevens. "Hey Stevens, Cabe Gallo are you on any details today? Great, if I can get permission would you mind a little protection detail for a few hours later this afternoon? Yea, you remember Walter O'Brien? We had an incident here at the hospital this morning a guy tried to force his way in here and Walter's in a medically induced coma and we need to run some errands and could use someone to watch over him for us while we're gone. Really? Thanks a lot. I'll get it cleared through Cooper's office. See you about 2 PM? Great, thanks Stevens I owe you."

Cabe looked at Paige, "I'll call Katharine's office and leave word for her. Stevens will watch Walter while we're gone."

Paige got up and hugged Cabe, "Thank you Cabe."

* * *

Paige ended up pacing around Walter's room while Cabe was gone, Walter's nurse had asked if there was anything she could do for her when she came to draw that morning's blood sample but Paige just waved her off.

Finally Ralph came running through his door followed shortly by Cabe, "Mom," Ralph gave her a hug.

"Sorry Paige, Ralph said he needed Walter's laptop to make the job easier. So it took us a little longer." Cabe told her.

Paige smiled, "That's okay, I'll take my shower while Ralph works if you don't mind watching them both."

Cabe smiled as he shook his head, "I don't mind."

Ralph booted up Walter's laptop and pulled up the programming tools Walter had developed for all his projects. He quickly slipped right thru the hospital's security software and infiltrated their hardware firewall and into their protective backup system files. He copied all the files over and began examining each one reading through the code at a blazing speed. Cabe watched over his shoulder for a moment but felt a little nauseated at the rapidly scrolling screen.

"Can you really read that screen that fast Ralph?" Cabe finally asked.

"Actually I can read it three times faster but I am going for accuracy over speed." Ralph replied.

Cabe laughed and left him alone.

Ralph finally located what he needed to find and began altering the code and set it to compile. "This part might take a few minutes," Ralph told Cabe.

While it compiled he used his tablet to access the system and looked at the file that all of Walter's data was stored in and did a checksum on it and determined that the data hasn't been altered by any non-hospital system and the last update had been over four hours before Toby had showed up that morning. The laptop beeped telling him the complier was finished and he swapped out the source code file he altered with the backup archive and then he transferred the modified hospital program to the system and forced a system wide update to every computer terminal in the hospital.

* * *

Paige walked out of the bathroom as Ralph sat smiling, "Okay, in a moment Dad's file will be protected so no other system can alter it, only this computer in this room will be able to make changes to it. I also ran an analysis on the file and I am confident no one such as Toby or the others have messed with it. I've also put an extra pass code on it." He gave them the pass code.

Paige smiled as she placed her arm around his shoulders and kissed the top of his head. "Thank you Ralph, I feel much better now." Paige looked at Cabe, "Did you guys eat already?"

"Not yet, we wanted to get here and get this taken care of first." Cabe told her.

Paige opened her purse and pulled out a twenty and handed it to Ralph, "Why don't you take your grandpa downstairs for breakfast, bring me back a coffee and a caramel long john if they got one."

Ralph smiled, "Can I get anything I want?"

Paige laughed and nodded her head.

As they stood in line waiting to pay Cabe pulled out his wallet and took out a twenty and handed it to Ralph, "Put your Mom's money up and pay for breakfast with this."

Ralph looked up at Cabe questioningly.

"Your Mom's got enough going on; she doesn't need to worry about money right now. When Walter's better you can give her the money back okay?" Cabe told him.

Ralph nodded; he loved having a man of practicality in his life to teach him the little things that a genius would never think of.

* * *

Dr Evans stepped into Walter's room and saw Paige reading a book, "Good morning Paige."

Paige smiled, "Dr Evans, good morning." Paige frowned as Dr Evans wasn't smiling. Panic rose inside of her, "What's wrong?"

"Paige, the blood draw this morning is showing infection rising in Walter's blood, it's not bad yet but it is concerning. His blood counts are good and the antibiotics are prevalent throughout his body which is what we want so now is when the rubber is meeting the road for Walter. If it wasn't for the breathing tube I would be tempted to bring him out of the coma because sedation does retard the body's responses." Dr Evans told her.

Paige fought back the tears that tried to rise up, "So basically we're still where we were yesterday just with a little more infection?"

Dr Evans smiled, "Basically, yes. That's a good way to look at it."

Paige nodded, "Very well, we know what we got to do then. Also, at Homeland's direction a young programmer with Scorpion has restricted access for writing to Walter's file to this computer." Paige pointed at the room's computer. "You can view the file anywhere within the hospital system but if you need to update it you will have to come to this room to update it. Homeland is concerned that hackers might try to hack the system to endanger Walter."

"I didn't think that was even possible." Dr Evans told her.

"The programmer is quite brilliant and resourceful." Paige told her with a smile.

Dr Evans walked over and logged into the system.

Paige looked at Walter's chart, "Wait, if the infection is rising, shouldn't he be running a fever?"

Dr Evans shook her head, "Not always, it could take his body a bit before it responds to it. That would be normal for anyone though so nothing to worry with yet. If it keeps rising throughout the day and he doesn't develop one then we might need to get more aggressive." Looking at Paige's face, "I'd rather err on the side of caution for right now I want his body to respond on its own. But you know what, let's test something."

Dr Evans walked over and pulled down the thermometer and put a protective wrap on it and asked Paige to open her mouth and slid it under her tongue. They watched as the read out ran up to the normal range and stopped. Dr Evans reset it and put a new wrap on it and put it in Walter mouth and they waited while watching it run up to just a low grade fever. Dr Evans smiled, "Good, just what I would expect."

Paige smiled feeling better that his body was reacting, "That's a good thing now right?"

Dr Evans nodded as she walked back to the computer and tried to input some notes and grew frustrated as the new pass code box came up stopping her from entering the information.

Paige smiled, "Here," she typed in the pass code Ralph gave her and Dr Evans was now able to enter the information.

"Umm, what was that and how do you have the pass code?" Dr Evans asked.

Paige smiled, "The programmer gave me the pass code. Homeland is not taking a chance on Walter's well being."

Dr Evans nodded, "Family practice should be making their rounds soon. They may have more questions will you be around today?"

Paige nodded.

"Good, I've also scheduled wound care to come and verify that his cuts and sores are all healing properly. Also I have physical therapy coming up to work his muscles since lying like this isn't good for anyone." Dr Evans told her.

Paige nodded, "Oh, would you update his file that I will give Walter his baths. If a nurse wishes to be present that's fine."

Dr Evans looked at Paige and started to say something but something about the look in her eye made her back down and just nod.

* * *

Cabe and Ralph showed up shortly after Dr Evans had left and Paige brought them up on Walter's condition. "Ralph, is there anyway that Sly could access the hospital system and mess with any of Walter's test results if they find out they can't access his record?"

Ralph gave it some serious thought, "Well they'd have to crack the patient code number, and then infiltrate the lab's computer system. So I believe he could."

"Anyway you could shore it up while you are here?" Cabe asked.

Ralph just grinned, "You know, it's kind of fun breaking the rules." He grabbed Walter's laptop and slid into a chair and began accessing the system.

Cabe and Paige both smiled at his enthusiasm, Cabe passed her the coffee and donut, "I had to beat the old lady that had this one until she gave it to me." Cabe teased her.

Paige laughed, "My hero; thanks."

Now that they knew Walter was running a temperature they had the nurse's aid checking it ever fifteen minutes and Paige was checking it every ten with her hand.

They had to make a little room so the lab tech could come in and run an echo on Walter's heart. Seeing how nervous Paige was he told her that everything looked good to him but the cardiologist would have to make the final call.

Wound care came in next and Paige was all over them watching everything they did and looking at how Walter's flesh was responding to the grafts and sutures and the infection. They reassured her that everything was looking good so far as they bandaged everything back up.

Physical therapy came in next and they were happy to demonstrate all the exercises to Paige and Cabe even letting them practice while they watched.

Family practice finally came in just before lunch and at first tried to give them some grief over Ralph but when Cabe stuck his Homeland badge in their faces they quickly backed down. But after listening to Walter's lungs and checking his eyes, nose and ears they finally moved on.

It was a little before 1 PM and Paige was feeling a little apprehensive and Cabe called Ralph over as he saw her knee starting to bounce, "Hey buddy, do you know what this is?" Cabe showed him what looked like a wristwatch but there was a button on the side of it.

"Is that a panic button?" Ralph asked.

Cabe smiled, "Smartest one in the room. Yes it is," Cabe slipped it over his wrist and adjusted it until it clicked. "Your Mom and I have a special appointment with a Dr who is going to help your Mom deal with what Toby did to her. She might not feel too comfortable with you hearing things about it so I want you to take your tablet and Walter's laptop and go sit in the waiting room across the hallway okay? If anyone tries to give you any problems or if any of the guys show up, you hit that button and I'll be over there in an instant. Okay?"

Ralph looked at his Mom and nodded his head. He got up and hugged his Mom, "I love you Mom."

Paige smiled and kissed his cheek, "I love you Ralphy."

As he walked into the waiting room Dr Anning came down the hallway and walked into Walter's room and he saw Cabe come to the door, smile at him and closed the door.


	12. Chapter 12

Ralph sat there running the complier on Walter's laptop having restructured a huge portion of the lab's computer system. He found it seriously lacking in security and was surprised that people hadn't died because of cross link information bleeds. But once the complier was done all the issues would be fixed and none of the information will be able to be attacked from outside the lab's computer system. It would be linked to the main hospital system so it would report a valid security code and without it the hospital system wouldn't update from it.

He looked up and saw agent Stevens walking down the hallway and he raised his hand and waved at him. Agent Stevens waved back and with a puzzled expression on his face walked back over to the waiting room. "Do I know you son?" Stevens asked.

Ralph shook his head, "Your agent Stevens, you work with my Grandpa at Homeland." Ralph explained.

"You're Grandpa? I don't think I know him." Stevens told him trying to think of anyone he knew with a grandson.

"Cabe Gallo," Ralph supplied.

"Oh, okay, yea, I know you're Grandpa. What are you doing out here by yourself?" Stevens asked.

"Mom and Grandpa are in a meeting with a Dr in my Dad's room. Grandpa didn't think I needed to hear what was going to be said." Ralph told him.

Stevens nodded, "Well that could be true. You seem like a pretty smart young man though."

Ralph smiled, "Thanks."

"You know how long they are going to be?" Stevens asked.

Ralph looked at the watch Cabe had given him, "Probably another ten minutes."

Stevens looked at the watch, "Isn't that a panic button watch?"

Ralph nodded, "Grandpa wants to be sure I'm protected."

Stevens nodded as he sat down and picked up a Sports Illustrated magazine, "You like sports? Who's your favorite baseball team?"

Ralph shook his head, "Not really, the statistics is pretty cool mathematically but the sport itself is rather boring. I prefer the Tech & Logic magazine."

Stevens looked down and picked it up, "Really, you big on computers?"

Ralph smiled showing him his tablet and laptop. "Oh," Stevens said half embarrassed.

Ralph pulled up his tablet and brought up pictures of Toby, Happy and Sylvester, "These are the guys my Grandpa wants to make sure can't get near my Dad."

Stevens looked and nodded as he pulled out his phone and snapped a picture of them.

The laptop beeped and Ralph pulled it up and replaced the files he changed and uploaded the new executable and forced a system update. "What are you playing?" Stevens asked as he looked over at the laptop.

Ralph shook his head, "I rewrote the hospital lab's computer program getting rid of all the bugs it had and making sure no one can hack into it to protect all the patients better."

Stevens stared at Ralph unsure if he was serious or not.

The door to Walter's room opened and Dr Anning left and Cabe looked over and saw Ralph with Stevens and he gestured and Ralph got up, "I guess they are done now."

Stevens looked up and nodded as he got up and walked with him to the room.

* * *

Paige looked a bit distressed as Ralph walked into the room and he ran over to her and hugged her, "Are you okay Mom?"

Paige closed her eyes as she hugged him and kissed the top of his eyes. "I will be baby, it's a lot to process and it will take time."

When Paige opened her eyes she saw Stevens and immediately panic rose up within her. Ralph asked with concern, "Mom?"

Cabe turned and saw her face and looked back and saw she was staring at Stevens, "Oh crap, Paige I'm sorry, I forgot. It's really okay, we got off on the wrong foot but Stevens is actually a good guy. He was one of the agents that were trying to protect the Garage and he was in charge of the scene when Walter crashed my SUV."

Paige slowly nodded as Stevens addressed her, "I am sorry we frightened you that day Ms Dineen. Please understand I am just here to try and help you guys."

"We've got to drop my grandson off at Caltech and run a few errands, we'll be back around 6 PM is that okay?" Cabe asked Stevens.

Stevens nodded and then stopped, "Wait, Caltech?"

Cabe laughed, "Yep, he'll have his Bachelor's degree in a year."

Stevens just stared at Ralph as they all left.

* * *

"Dr Tobias Curtis," the bailiff called before the judge.

Toby was brought in and made to stand at the podium next to Sylvester.

"Your honor Mr. Curtis has outstanding moving violations and numerous citations for being disrespectful, among other things, to the various police officers who have stopped him. Today he was caught trying to impersonate his former employer's physician we believe in some kind of vengeance against said employer." The prosecution attorney addressed the court.

The judge clearly bored, "Defense?"

"Thank you your honor and may I say what a smart robe you're wearing." Sylvester said.

"No, you may not. How does your client plea?" The judge asked.

"Your honor we believe my client has been the victim of a hacker and had his records changed with someone else." Sylvester started.

"What, are you telling me your client pleads not guilty?" The judge looked up.

"No, yes, I mean, I'm just trying to offer an explanation." Sylvester pressed on.

The judge shook his head and looked at his bailiff, "Why do I get all the coo coos? Mr. Dodd, the courts of California have a set procedure. At this time that procedure is to plead innocent or guilty."

"Sly, stop pissing off the judge, just say innocent and get bail." Happy whispered threateningly.

"Mr. Dodd. If you are done with your fan, may I have a plea please?" The judge asked clearly getting more upset.

"Yes your honor, not guilt and we request bail." Sylvester said.

"Bail recommendations Mr. Means?" The judge asked.

"Your honor due to the serious nature of the threat against Mr. O'Brien whom you may recall just rescued a kidnapped hostage and 2 Homeland agents and ended the threat of a terrorist and is completely defenseless in a medically induced coma we have to ask that bail be denied and the defendant be remanded." Mr. Means said.

"Mr. Dodd," The judge asked.

"That's hardly fair your honor; my client was Mr. O'Brien's physician. He was honestly concerned with his health." Sylvester said.

Mr. Means was handed a note and quickly read it, "Your honor, I was just made away that the defendant's lawyer also was a former employee who also walked out on Mr. O'Brien two weeks ago along with the defendant's wife and they remain suspects in psychological attacks against Mr. O'Brien which started the same night as they all walked out on him."

"What is the source of this information?" The judge asked.

"Your honor it comes from agent Cabe Gallo who has been the liaison between Homeland and team Scorpion for the last four years." Mr. Means held the note out and the Bailiff took it and walked it up to the judge.

"In light of this new information I'm ordering the defendant remanded until trial or at least until Mr. O'Brien is brought out of this coma." The judge ruled and then banged his gavel.

* * *

Paige hesitantly stepped into the Garage after Cabe opened the door for her. She hadn't been back in just over two weeks and she was almost scared. She looked around as Cabe punched in the pass code and she stepped on out and looked down by the couch. "What happened to the coffee table?"

Cabe laughed, "Walter destroyed it in anger after he was turned down for that first job after you guys left."

She noticed how sterile all the desks and work areas looked, "Lord, this place looks awful; with everything gone it's so barren. That really had to hurt him."

Cabe nodded as they heard Bueller chattering at them and Paige quickly walked over and opened his cage and took him out and he quickly ran up her arm and under her hair and curled around her neck. A tear ran down her cheek, "I missed you too."

She slowly walked through the kitchen and saw Walter's car towards the back and she continued to walk back to it. She saw the damage from when it hit the wall, the roof support that was cut through and pried up, the door that had been powered opened, the air bag that had deployed and the dried blood still covering it. She saw all the dents where Walter had beat the car over and over and then she saw the offending sledgehammer and the blood stained handle. Tears ran down her face, "My poor Walter, he had to be so distraught. Lord Cabe, why couldn't I just listen to you, how could I have been so mad that Toby's suggestions allowed me to be so uncaring?"

Cabe wrapped his arm around her shoulders, "Well to be fair you did care, it was clear when I looked in your face, you just couldn't fight past his suggestions. There's a little difference there."

Paige walked over to Walter's desk and pulled the accident report out of it and then walked to her old desk and sat down and picked up the phone. "Yes, this is Paige Dineen, Mr. O'Brien's office manager. He was in an accident a couple of weeks ago and we believe his car was totaled. I need to schedule an adjuster to come out and examine the car so we can see about a replacement. Of course here is his policy number," Paige rattled the number off. "Well Mr. O'Brien is currently in a medically induced coma and unable to give any kind of deposition. I have a copy of the accident report with me. Yes, I can sign for him. His car is currently at the address on his policy. No, it can't be driven so unless you want to tow it to your office, yes I will be available tomorrow at 1 PM to meet with the adjuster. Thank you." Paige hung up the phone and opened her drawer that had the active case files in it and found they were all marked cancelled. She sighed both in sorrow and gratitude that no one would be upset he couldn't get their jobs done.

Paige slowly got up and walked over to the stairs and looked up towards the loft. She took a deep breath and climbed the stairs. Cabe simply watched allowing her to explore and experience everything on her own.

She noted with pleasure the difference between Walter and Drew, when Drew was depressed he became a bigger slob than he was normally but Walter remained a neat freak, all dishes washed and put away, nothing just lying around. She stood at the door to their bedroom and took a deep breath and opened it. As she stepped in she saw all her things still sitting exactly where she'd left them and she smiled as a tear ran down her cheek, she'd feared that Walter would have destroyed or at least got rid of everything. She walked over to their closet and opened the door and smiled seeing the items she left there all cleaned and hung neatly. She made her way back downstairs.

She walked over to Cabe and hugged him tightly and cried.

* * *

Stevens was sitting in a chair besides Walter's bed reading the Tech & Logic magazine Ralph had told him he liked and he had to admit half the stuff in it was clearly beyond him when he heard a sound and he looked up and saw Ted wheeling himself into Walter's room.

"Ted, how are you doing?" Stevens got up and moved over to shake his hand.

"Hey Michael, I'm doing okay. What brings you by?" Ted asked.

"Protection detail for Walter, some nut ball tried to get in the room this morning, that Toby Curtis." Michael told him.

"No kidding? Wow, hey is Paige around?" Ted asked.

"No, she left with Cabe to run some errands. Apparently Toby had actually hypnotized Paige and was manipulating her as well." Michael told him.

Ted stared at him, "What a scumbag, what's going on about him?"

"He got busted for almost $13k worth of traffic violations plus trying to impersonate Walter's personal physician. I think he was supposed to be arraigned by now. If I had known you were here I would have come in earlier and visited with you before this." Michael said.

Ted smiled, "No worries, when Paige gets back would you let her know I came by and I would appreciate it if she'd come by to talk with me please? Room B324."

"Room B324, you got man. Take care of yourself." Michael told him.

Ted rolled back into his room and smiled at Florence, "She was gone with Cabe doing some errands." Ted told her.

Florence nodded, "You really don't have to talk to her Ted, after all, no matter how she feels when Walter wakes up I have to resign from Scorpion.

"Maybe, but this isn't about that." Ted told her as he leaned forward and kissed her.

* * *

Cabe called Allie before they left the Garage to pick up Ralph. "Hey Mr. Gallo," Allie said sexily as she answered her phone.

Cabe smiled, "Hello Ms Jones, I've missed you."

Allie laughed.

"Hey, we're getting ready to leave the Garage to pick up Ralph at Caltech, what do you think about Chinese for dinner?" Cabe asked her.

"Oh Cabe, that sounds perfect. I've been craving Chinese all day. Get me the vegetarian broccoli platter okay?" Allie asked.

Cabe smiled, "Sounds good sweetie, see you in Walter's room at 6 PM?"

Allie grinned, "I'd say it's a date but there are a few too many people for that."

Cabe laughed as they hung up.

* * *

"So what do we do Sly?" Happy asked him.

"Well I could file a petition to allow me to conduct a forensics study of the computer system to prove that someone falsely implicated Toby. But that won't help with the charges with Walter. I'm surprised that Homeland is allowing the State to pursue the charges against him for that to be honest." Sylvester told her.

"So if someone hacked the computer and switched Toby's information around who would want to hurt Toby that way? Walt's been in the coma so he couldn't have done it." Happy told him.

Sylvester looked up, "Why not? We don't know when it happened. Maybe Walter did it before the coma. Why is he in a coma anyway? What terrorist did he stop?"

Happy shrugged her shoulders.

Sylvester pulled out the law books he had and began drafting his request for a forensics examination of the computers to prove Toby hadn't gotten the tickets and that there wasn't a lawful arrest warrant issued for him.

* * *

Cabe, Paige and Ralph walked into Walter's room carrying the bags of food from Allie's favorite Chinese restaurant. Stevens stood up, "Welcome back. Paige you had a visitor. He asked when you had a moment to come to his room, B324."

Paige looked puzzled, "Ted Markus." Stevens told her.

Paige looked at Cabe, "I guess I should go see what Ted wants."

"You want me to go with you?" Cabe asked.

She shook her head, "No, Stevens was so nice to sit with Walter, he deserves to go home."

"You can call me Michael if you want. And I don't mind staying a bit longer. I doubt my TV dinner will mind." Stevens laughed.


	13. Chapter 13

**Haha in response to your question, I don't know why Walter keeps ending up in the hospital and in a coma or whatever. I can only write what the story tells me. But thank you for the chuckle, I've been asking myself that question for a while now. To the Adventure! -Tim**

* * *

Paige knocked on Ted's open door as she stood there with Cabe and they saw him sitting in his wheelchair next to Florence as they played some cards. Ted smiled, "Hey guys, come on in. Thanks for stopping by."

Paige briefly smiled and Cabe stepped on up and reached his hand out and shook Ted's. "You look a lot better than you did the night before last." Cabe told him with a grin.

Ted laughed, "I bet, how is your head feeling? That trap looked like it hurt like hell."

Cabe laughed, "Has everyone seen that video?"

"Hey, at least you just knocked out. I got captured and shot after breaking my ankle when I fell down that trap." Ted laughed. "If you can stay for a minute, grab a seat." Ted said pointing at a couple of other chairs.

Cabe stepped to the side and let Paige sit down first, "We can't stay too long, Allie is on her way and we got dinner waiting on us. How are you doing Florence?" Cabe asked as he sat down.

Florence nodded, "I'm doing okay. I'll be glad when Ted is cleared to go to rehab in a couple of days." Florence looked to Paige, "I'm really sorry; Ted told me that Toby had hypnotized you and was manipulating you as well."

"Thanks," Paige said quietly.

"See, I told you this wouldn't be weird Florence." Ted told her laughing.

Ted grew serious and looked at Paige, "Paige, we get it, we understand why you lashed out at Florence, we just wanted to try and reach out and see if we could maybe mend some fences together so to speak."

Paige looked up at Ted, "You get why I 'lashed out' at her do you? She's damn lucky she got off so easily. If Cabe hadn't of refused to arrest her ass, she'd be in jail on her way to court as a damn terrorist and I would be the star witness. Sorry, I don't have any fences I care to mend."

"Paige, she made a mistake, she's sorry." Ted told her.

Paige scoffed, "Oh, well I guess that makes everything all better then. I guess being made into a laughing stock by being suckered into believing the man I love had cheated on me. I was being manipulated to the point that I crushed his spirit with hateful words and then for her to torture him even further by writing those horrible, despicable words for him and the whole world to see. And then because she can't stand the grief she helped to cause, gets kidnapped so that the love of my life has to risk everything to try and save her. I guess her being sorry just makes all that go away."

"Of course it doesn't Paige and we're not trying to suggest it will. But some of that pain Walter is in is because of you." Ted told her.

Paige looked at Cabe, "I'm ready to leave now."

Cabe nodded and stood up and let her out.

"Life is short Paige, even if you don't want to tell Florence you forgive her, at least forgive her in your heart so you don't carry that with you." Ted called out as Paige hurriedly left the room.

Cabe kind of ticked his head, "See you guys later."

Florence looked at Ted, "You promised you wouldn't blame her."

"Sorry, it was instinctual. I'm always going to defend you." Ted told her.

Florence shook her head, "I get that and I appreciate it, but in this case I was completely in the wrong. Do you honestly think for one minute she would have caused any pain for Walter if not for me?"

"That's not the point Florence; she chose to react that way." Ted told her stubbornly.

"But that's the point Ted; it was a reaction, to what I did. I chose to hurt people, good people, people who hadn't done anything to me for personal gain. Maybe I didn't know what Collins had planned or how demented he was but I still willing with clear knowledge set all this into motion. I didn't even stop after accidentally hurting Douglas. It wasn't until I heard how bad Walter was hurting did I stop. And I was miles away from that first step. So, you need to go up to Walter's room and apologize right now to Paige for what you said. Yes I want her to forgive me but for her, not for me. I'll carry my burden, she shouldn't have to." Florence told him with steel in her voice.

Ted stared at her for several minutes unable to tell if she was serious when she finally raised her arm to point out his door, "Do you need me to push you over there? Because I will, you will go apologize to her for what you said."

Ted slowly moved his wheelchair unable to believe Florence's reaction. Suddenly his chair started moving faster as Florence having grown tired of his speed began pushing him.

* * *

Paige stormed into the waiting room outside Walter's room and into the crying room inside and closed the door and screamed over and over. She heard a soft knock and she closed her eyes and opened the door and as she opened her eyes she saw Cabe standing there. Paige asked disgustedly, "You here to blame me too?"

Cabe shook his head, "I just wanted to be sure you were okay."

Paige laughed without any mirth, "Why shouldn't I be? Seems like I am the only one that thinks she should be held responsible for her actions."

Cabe looked at her, "Paige, are you only upset at her? Could some of this be resentment at your own actions, manipulated as they were? Do you think you deserve to be punished?"

Tears ran down her cheeks, "Don't you think I should be punished? Walter didn't do anything wrong and look what's happening to him in there. He might not be able to walk again; he might succumb to the bacteria and have multi organ failure. He could die without ever regaining consciousness. And all because I couldn't stand up on my own and protect him from the damn manipulations of that lunatic and his pawns. Why shouldn't I be punished, I deserve to be punished for my part in this if he deserves that for just being a good man." She began crying harder and harder.

Cabe reached out and pulled her tightly against him, "My sweet girl, his feet, that bacterial threat isn't your fault it's my own for not telling him about CP. If I had he wouldn't have walked all that distance home and harmed his feet so bad."

"If I had been able to tell him it wouldn't have been your fault. It's my fault for falling for that, that, two faced witch's manipulations. I knew how Walter loved me; I knew he didn't do anything with the intent to hurt me. If I had stayed with him none of this would have happened." Paige told him.

"And Florence fell for Collins's manipulations." Cabe told her.

Paige stepped back, looking incredulously at Cabe, "No, No," she pointed at Cabe, "That's the whole fallacy, she wasn't manipulated. She CHOSE to be an evil person. She had all the information and she CHOSE to act like she did. To manipulate all of us to further that lunatic's agenda. Even after breaking Scorpion apart she continued to work for him writing all those horrible words on the building. How did those words make you feel?"

Cabe nodded, "Horrible of course. But sweetheart, Ted was right in one thing. I know it's hard, Lord knows I have a hard time letting things go, but you need to let this go for you. Not her, you don't have to tell anyone else. Let this anger go and bring back that positive young lady I know you are. Walter is going to need her no matter how this plays out. I believe he is going to be fine and I believe he is going to welcome you back with open arms. But he doesn't need the negative emotions you are carrying with you in that room. So close this door, scream, cuss, cry; whatever you need to do and let it all out and then embrace the goodness that you naturally possess and come join us. Okay?"

As Cabe turned to leave, Paige asked, "Cabe?" He looked back, "I need Walter to hold me, you're the closest person to him I have. Please?"

Cabe smiled and held his arms open and Paige rushed into them and he closed them around her and held her tightly as she hugged him back.

* * *

Allie smiled as she walked by the waiting room on the way to Walter's room and saw Cabe holding Paige. She walked on into the room and Ralph looked up with a large smile, "Grandma." He got up and hugged her.

"Hey kiddo," Allie smiled as she hugged him.

"Hey Ms Jones, I'm agent Stevens, Michael if you prefer. I'm just keeping an eye on Walter while Cabe and Paige are visiting with Ted." Michael greeted her.

Allie reached her hand out, "Hi Michael, you can call me Allie. Cabe and Paige are in the waiting room at the moment."

* * *

Ted and Florence saw Cabe holding Paige in the waiting room and she walked over and opened the door and waited for him to roll in. As the door closed behind them Florence looked at Ted, "This is your fault Ted, you need to apologize to Paige now."

Florence's voice jolted both Paige and Cabe and they turned to see them by the door. Ted cleared his throat, "Paige, I want to apologize, after Florence got done kicking my butt after you left, I was wrong for blaming you for any of Walter's pain. You reacted to a situation and we can't always help how we react, especially when we don't have all the information."

Florence smiled at Ted and then looked up at Paige, "I know you hate me, or at least hate what I willing did and I don't blame you. I was more than willing to let you beat me senseless, I was more than willing to allow Cabe to arrest me, I was more than willing to face the vengeance Ms Cooper wanted to inflict on me. I was a horrible, horrible person and I did a number of horrible things. I don't expect you to forgive me and part of me doesn't want to be forgiven for what I did. But I do want peace for you. I already know when Walter returns to the Garage I have to resign from Scorpion and you won't ever understand or believe how much that is going to hurt me. I know that probably sounds phony, but even in the midst of doing all those horrible things, Scorpion grew on me, I just couldn't stop myself. At least not until I heard how bad Walter was hurting in missing you, the sounds travel between the walls of the Garage quite well and I could hear it all. There is nothing in my life I regret more than hurting all of you. I truly am sorry."

Paige stared at her until she finally sighed and stepped back and opened the door and Ted turned and rolled back through. As the door was closing, "Thank you," Paige said simply.

Cabe smiled at Paige and kissed her forehead, "That's my girl."

Paige smiled, "Can we go eat now? I'm a little hungrier then I was a few minutes ago."

Cabe nodded as he laughed and they went back to Walter's room.

* * *

As Cabe and Allie hugged Paige turned to Michael, "Thank you Michael for keeping Walter and Ralph safe." She reached out her hand and Michael shook it.

"You're welcome; I'm available anytime you need help." He told her as he picked up his jacket and put it on.

"You know, if you have a little time, we got plenty of food if you'd like to join us. One stipulation, you have to occasionally talk to Walter." Paige told him with a smile.

"You hear that Walter? I think your lady is hitting on me, you better wake up." Michael said with a smile.

They all laughed as they moved to sit down when they heard garbled sounds from Walter.

They all turned to stare at Walter in bed his eyes closed and Paige pushed past everyone, "Walter?" She said softly as she lifted his hand in hers. "Walter, it's Paige sweetie, how are you feeling?"

Walter's face scrunched and he moved it from side to side, his arms straining against the tie downs. "Umm, I'm not an expert but shouldn't a medically induced coma mean he shouldn't be, well, conscious at any level?" Michael said.

"He's right, hit the call light Paige, something isn't right." Cabe told her.

Paige reluctantly hit the call light and a moment later a voice came on, "Nurse's station, can I help you?"

"Yes, this is Paige in Walter O'Brien's room and he seems to be waking up."

"His nurse will be right there." The voice answered and just as the light went out his nurse came hurrying through the door.

"What happened?" He asked.

They heard Walter trying to speak; the ventilator alarms going off as he fought against it, struggling to speak. They all stared at him.

The nurse hurried over to the medicine pumped and pushed several buttons, "Great, it's malfunctioned. I'll have to get another one." He hurriedly left the room.

"Walter, please hear me, don't struggle love. Everyone you love is right here, try to relax the nurse is getting a new machine to help you." Paige pleaded.

Ralph moved up to the other side and grabbed his other hand, "Dad, I'm here with Mom and Grandpa and Grandma, agent Stevens is here too. He was looking out for you today."

Walter's eyes snapped open and he looked around the room, struggling to make sense of everything he was feeling and seeing. His eyes settled on Ralph and he tried to smile, then he pulled against the restraints, jerking against them hard over and over.

"Please Walter, your hurt; you're going to hurt yourself more. I know you're confused but its okay I promise." Paige told him.

His head turned and saw her standing there holding his hand and his arms went slack as he mouthed, "I love you, I've missed you so much."

Paige wiped at her eyes, "I've missed you too Walter and I love you so much."

"Please, please, no more, please, let me go." Walter mouthed.

"No more what baby?" She struggled to read his lips around the vent tube. "What do you mean let you go?"

Walter jerked at the restraints, "Son, those are there to stop you from hurting yourself by removing the breathing tube." Cabe told him.

Walter nodded his head emphatically.

"You want the tube removed?" Paige asked.

Walter looked back at her and smiled as he nodded. "I want to kiss you."

Paige smiled as tears flooded her eyes and a few ran down her cheeks, "Baby, you are so sick, you need the tube to help you. But I would love to kiss you."

Walter shook his head and he looked down at Ralph, "Please Ralph, it hurts, help me." Walter mouthed to him.

"I can't Dad; the Drs won't listen to me." Ralph told him.

Walter turned back to Paige as he pleaded with her again, "Please, no more, I'll be good, please." He mouthed again.

The nurse came running back into the room with another medicine pump and Walter started shaking his head no as he watched him.

"Hey, hold up a moment there." Michael told the nurse. "Walter doesn't seem to want this medicine or that tube."

The nurse looked back at them, "I'm just a nurse, the Dr is the only one who can make that call."

"Son, go call the Dr and get him down here now." Cabe told him. He looked back at Paige and she nodded her head.

"I need to at least get the antibiotics hooked back up again it could be very detrimental otherwise." The nurse told Paige.

"Hook up just the antibiotics then and go get the Dr." Paige told him.

He nodded and quickly switched the machine over and only started the drip with the antibiotic and then he left.

"He's going to get the Dr and we'll get this tube out okay baby?" Paige asked Walter as she kissed his cheek. Walter closed his eyes and enjoyed the soft touch of her lips to his cheek.


	14. Chapter 14

Because of the medicine they had Walter on he was slipping from being loving one moment to almost irrational the next as they waited for the Dr to show up. "Why is he acting this way?" Paige finally asked out loud.

"It's the medicine they use to keep him out. It can also cause hallucinations as well." Ralph told her.

Dr Evans came running into the room, "Guys I am so sorry the nurse told me the pump had quit working. I'm sorry you had to experience this." She looked at Walter, "Mr. O'Brien, I'm Dr. Evans. I'm the plastic surgeon that took care of all your wounds. Has your family brought you up to speed on your condition?"

Walter and Paige both nodded.

"Are you willing to accept the risk if we remove the breathing tube?" Dr Evans asked.

They both nodded again.

The nurse came walking in with a small tray and set it up on Walter's shoulder as Dr Evans moved around by Walter's right shoulder and working together with the nurse they undid everything from the tube so all she had to do was deflate the balloon. "Okay Walter, I am going to count to three, I want you to take a deep breath and when I say three I want you to blow out as hard as you can while I remove the tube, okay?"

Walter nodded.

She picked up a small syringe like device and inserted it in to a small tube and twisted it and then drew back on the plunger emptying the balloon inside his throat.

"1," Walter took in a deep breath, "2, 3," Walter blew as hard as he could as she pulled the tube up and out of his throat and mouth and laid it on the towel the nurse had laying there for it.

Walter coughed and grimaced, "Take it easy, and just breathe for a bit. It's going to take a bit for everything to settle down inside your throat." Dr. Evans told him.

Walter couldn't wait and he turned and looking to Paige he moved his head back at her. Paige stepped around the nurse as he worked to untie Walter's hands. Walter looked into her face, "You're really here?" He said hoarsely with tears in his eyes.

Paige smiled and nodded, "Of course I am. I love you."

Walter smiled, "I love you. I didn't think I would ever see you again."

Tears filled her eyes, "I'm so sorry Walter."

Walter shook his head, "No, I'm sorry. I should have remembered how you felt about your Mom and the things she pulled on you. I shouldn't have hid anything from you. It's my fault. Will you forgive me?"

Paige smiled, "I already did Walter. I love you." Paige bent down and kissed him. Paige smiled, "I think you could use a little chap stick."

Walter tried to laughed and grimaced. With his arm free he reached up and caressed her face. He looked over at Ralph, "Hey buddy, I love you and I've missed you." He squeezed his hand.

Ralph stood there with tears in his eyes looking up at Walter, "I love you Dad and I've missed you too."

Walter looked to the foot of the bed and saw Cabe and Allie standing there and smiled, "Hey Cabe, I love you too"

Cabe smiled, "I love you son."

"Thank you Allie for being there for my Dad, I love you too." Walter told her.

Allie smiled, "It's been my pleasure and you're welcome. I love you too Walter."

Walter looked just past them and smiled, "My pictures."

They all turned to look, "Ralphy said he wanted you to wake up to them." Paige told him.

Walter smiled, "Thank you buddy."

Ralph just nodded.

"It's a little warm in here." Walter told them.

"That would be the infection in your body Mr. O'Brien." The Dr told him.

It took a little rearranging but they filled a plate for everyone. Cabe's beef fried rice and Paige's order of shrimp fried rice was used to increase everyone but Allie's portion and Ralph shared his plain fried rice with her. Paige sat beside Walter and she'd feed him a bite and then herself a couple of bites as it took him a few minutes to swallow. Ralph had run across the hall to the waiting room and got Walter a cold water to see if it would help with soothing the pain and discomfort in his throat.

Michael had left before Walter was done and reminded them if they needed him he'd be happy to come keep an eye on Walter.

Cabe and Allie left with Ralph after Walter finally finished his dinner. Paige kept touching his face and looking into his eyes. Walter was so happy. "If I'm asleep, let me never wake, if I'm awake, never let me sleep." Walter said to her.

Paige looked at him in amazement, "I didn't think you were paying attention when we watched that movie."

Walter just smiled and then Walter frowned, "How's Ted and Florence?"

Paige nearly spit her drink out. She looked up at Walter, "Well, Ted's doing better, he should be transferred to a rehab for his broken ankle and the gunshot wound to his shoulder in a couple of days. Florence seems like her evil self."

Walter smiled, "Good."

"You're not going to scold me for saying that about Florence?" Paige asked him. She'd feared to say it but if they were going to move forward, he had to know how she really felt.

Walter shook his head, "You have a right to feel how you feel and to express it how you need to. She hurt you too and I fully support your position, whatever it is."

"So if I say I want to press charges against her?" Paige asked with her brow raised.

"Then I'd tell you where to find all the evidence needed to prosecute her." Walter smiled at her as he ran his bandaged hand up and through her hair.

A tear cascaded down her cheek, "Thank you for your support and not trying to make me see any other side." Paige told him as she kissed him.

As she straightened back up, "You're not going to ask me about Collins?" Paige asked.

Walter shook his head, "He made his choice, and he never should have threatened you and Ralph. I would have let him live otherwise."

"You broke your code; you killed him to protect me? Even after all the horrible things I said? After walking out on you? After helping to start a company to compete against your company, you still did that to protect me?" Paige asked stunned.

Walter nodded, "I love you Paige and only you."

Paige stood up and reached over and hugged him gently. As she pulled back he kissed her and she leaned into the kiss and the kissed deepened as their mouths opened and their tongues battled. After several minutes Walter cleared his throat and Paige looked at him, "Maybe we should hold off for while." His cheeks blushed.

Paige looked at him puzzled at first and then she looked down and saw his hospital gown had a bit of a tent in it. She smiled a little wickedly. "Oh, I suppose. Though I'd imagine that after night meds we might be able to work something out." Paige teased him.

Walter smiled and held up his hands. "I said we might be able to work something out." Paige winked at him.

Walter's nurse was hesitant but at Walter's insistence he called the Dr and finally came back in and removed the catheter from him and gave him a urinal as he still couldn't be on his feet. Paige grinned at him as the nurse left.

Walter lay on his left side behind Paige, the clock on the wall said it was just past midnight. Her idea had worked quite well and he was quite happy about that. "Paige, what about Centipede Partners?"

Paige was deep asleep with a smile as if to say all was right in her world again. Walter smiled and closed his eyes with the scent of her shampoo in his nose. "If I am dreaming, let me never wake, if I am awake, let me never sleep." Walter said softly.

Walter slept the best he had since that horrible night at the Garage. Cabe startled both of them when he came in the next morning. "Sorry kids," Cabe grinned, "I didn't think you would still be asleep. I just stopped in on my way to Homeland to see if either of you needed anything?"

Walter hugged Paige tightly and shook his head no. Paige smiled and melted back against him. "I think I am good, though I will need to get to the Garage by 1 PM." She told them both.

"Why do you need to go to the Garage?" Walter asked with just a hinge of fear.

"The insurance adjuster is coming out to evaluate your car so I can get it out of the Garage and start looking for a replacement for you. Or do you want to do that yourself?" Paige asked.

Walter closed his eyes with a smile on his lips, "I don't think I will be driving much for a while so I am not worried with it. But if you want to do that, I trust your judgment."

"I probably should go pick up my car at some point so Cabe doesn't have to keep chauffeuring me around." Paige smiled at Cabe.

Cabe laughed, "Well to be honest I don't mind. But probably at some point Katharine is going to want me to actually start working again. Though protecting government assets might qualify as working."

"Oh, so you know Toby was remanded into custody. The judge might revisit bail though, now that Walt's awake." Cabe told Paige.

"Toby's in jail?" Walter asked looking over Paige's shoulder.

Cabe nodded, "$13k in unpaid traffic violations and he tried to force his way into your room impersonating as your personal physician."

Walter frowned.

"What's up son? I can see you are thinking something." Cabe asked as Paige turned her head trying to look back.

"Something about Toby, I can't really recall. Things are so fuzzy from that night at the warehouse." Walter told him.

"Speaking of which, we need to talk about you stealing my SUV, not to mention crashing it." Cabe told him with s slight smile on his lips.

"I'm sorry, I had to take it. I didn't mean to crash, I lost consciousness for a moment." Walter told him.

Paige turned over onto her back, "Why did you have to take it?"

Walter looked down at her perfect face, "I could feel my life slipping away. I knew Katharine and any medics wouldn't let me, but I had to get to you to apologize and to tell you I love you one last time. I knew you wouldn't answer my phone call."

Walter smiled with a tear, "I'm sorry I hurt you, Cabe and Ralph."

"What do you mean?" Paige asked confused.

"When I died, I could see you guys crying as Sara tried to get my heart beating again." Walter told her.

"You have a memory of that son?" Cabe asked with tears in his eyes.

Walter looked up and nodded, "It seemed like I was floating above all of you, I kept going up higher when Paige asked someone to restore the love of her life to her."

Paige had tears run down the side of her face as she reached up and ran her hand through his hair. "I felt some force push against me, pushing me down and then I was breathing again. It was very, odd." Walter told them.

Paige threw her left arm around Walter's neck and pulled him over and hugged him tightly as she cried. "It's okay now Paige, baby." Walter told her, testing the sound of calling her baby mimicking her own use of the term for him.

Paige kind of laughed, "Thank you." She told him.

Cabe decided he'd leave and give them some time alone, "I'll be back around 11:30 AM to pick you up Paige. That should give us enough time to get to the Garage."

Paige nodded as Walter asked, "You know, when you come back this afternoon, I could go for some fermented fish." He looked into her eyes and she laughed as Cabe laughed walking out of the room and closing their door behind him.

Paige finally looked up at Walter, "I probably better get a shower."

Walter smiled, "If I can't persuade you to stay a little longer."

Walter's new nurse enter the room and her eyes opened real big and started to go off on Paige even though Walter glared at her Paige simply reached for her purse on the table next to the bed and pulled a folded piece of paper out and handed it to her. She reached up and kissed Walter almost daring her to say something else.

"Well today is bath day so I'll be back in about ten minutes." The nurse told them as she handed back the folded letter.

Paige pointed at the computer, "Read Dr Evan's instructions." She never took her eyes off of Walter's face.

After reading the note the nurse huffed, "Fine, I'll still be back in a ten minutes with his morning meds."

Paige suppressed her laugh until the door closed behind the nurse. "I guess I should get up and get my shower and then I'll come out and give you your bath." She told him with a smile.

Walter's brow rose, "Why are you giving me a bath?"

Paige slipped out from under the cover and looked back at him and as she bent over and kissed him her hand grabbed him in a certain spot. "Because you are mine and no one else will touch you here." She told him very seriously.

Walter nodded, "You are the only one I want to touch me, anywhere."

Paige pulled a change of clothes from the over night bag she had and a couple of towels from the storage area just outside of the restroom. Blowing Walter a kiss she stepped in and started her shower.

Walter laid back and smiled as he heard the water run. A few moments later his nurse knocked and opened the door and moved on into the room. As she handed him a small container with some pills and a small glass of water, "It's not very courteous of you and your lady friend to be doing things like that."

Walter looked at her, "Cuddling in bed? If it bothers you that much, feel free to have another nurse care for me. I don't need your judgments."

The nurse huffed again as she left his room quickly. He heard Paige turn on her hair dryer and began blow drying her hair. Paige stepped out of the bathroom and put her things away and throwing the towels into the linen bag. She looked at Walter, "Ready for your bath?"

Walter smiled, "Sure, oh, do you know where my things are?"

Paige looked at him for a moment, "Well they gave me a small bag with your boxers in them."

Walter stared at her, "There wasn't a USB drive in my pants pocket?" He looked worried.

Paige shook her head, "No, but then your pants were left at my place. Sara had to remove them to see your legs. Cabe washed them."

Walter looked slightly anguished.

"Why? What's wrong baby?" Paige asked stepping up to him.

"Something in my mind, something important about the drive, I just can't remember what." Walter told her.


	15. Chapter 15

Paige brought out a wash basin full of hot sudsy water and a wash cloth, and a basin of rinse water. Pulling the curtain around Walter's bed she smiled as she pulled his blanket down and helped him remove his hospital gown. She used the rinse water first to wet down his chest, "Paige, what about Centipede Partners?" Walter asked as she started washing.

She shrugged, "Don't really care, I quit the other day."

Walter looked surprised, "Really?"

Paige nodded, "We were in the waiting room while you were in surgery and Cabe asked me what I was going to do about them and I called Toby and told him to take Centipede Partners and shove it up his ass."

Walter started laughing, "Why did you call Toby to quit?"

"He was the one who came up with the whole thing and kept pressuring me to stay away from you and to join them." She told him. She didn't really want to talk to him about it but she knew she couldn't withhold any information about it. They just repaired their relationship and she did not want to fall back into that trap. "There is something else I should tell you but it's not good." Paige told him as she dried his chest and arms.

"Okay," Walter trusted her and gave her the time she needed.

She started washing his stomach, "We found out that Toby actually hypnotized me, using the anger I had over you to get me to stay away from you and to work against you." She looked up at Walter's face and she could see the hurt in his eyes more than anger and she sighed a little easier. She wasn't really sure if hurt was better than anger but at least his heart rate wasn't altering.

"What exactly did he make you do?" Walter finally asked as she moved lower.

"Thankfully nothing sexual or illegal, but he used a command word so that if he needed me to respond a certain way he could say it and give me a command, like that day at the office when you found out I tried to come back out to talk to you and he stopped me and used the command to make me stay and help them get that programming job." Paige told me.

Since his legs had all kinds of bandages all over she stopped from going any lower and changed out the rinse water and had him roll over facing the direction of the windows. "I just wish I could have thrown off his commands sooner, Ralph and Cabe kept pleading but even though I knew what they were saying was true I couldn't admit it I had to accept what Toby told me." She told him.

"So you finally broke it?" Walter asked.

She nodded her head and then realized he couldn't see it and she kind of laughed, "Yes, sorry I was nodding my head and you weren't even able to see it. When we came out of the meeting, I was so sick to my stomach and spent about twenty minutes in the bathroom throwing up. The guys were laughing it up and making fun of you about how hurt you looked on our way out to my car and it made me so mad. They were your friends I couldn't understand how they could derive so much pleasure from what happened to you."

"After we got in my car and we took off Sly was wanting to go out to eat to celebrate and I said no, I was taking them back to the office and they could go celebrate if they wanted but I didn't want anything to do with celebrating what we had done to you. Toby sat up and whispered Beetlejuice and told me I would go with them to celebrate and I read him the riot act. He tried it a couple of hours later when he called me on the phone. It was Katharine Cooper who put it together that he had hypnotized me and she got a Homeland psychologist to come out and Cabe sat with me here in your room and she hypnotized me to find out what exactly happened. Sadly it wasn't his command that made me leave you, that was all on me."

She finished drying him off. "I'm really sorry he did that to you. I never would have thought he would do something like that." Walter told her. He rolled back over on his back and she helped him into a clean gown. "You know that most likely Ralph is messing with Toby right?" Walter told her.

"What? What do you mean?" She looked perplexed.

Walter smiled, "The traffic violations, Toby's a jerk yes, but he's pretty responsible as a driver. Almost no way he'd accumulate even a few hundred in moving violations."

Paige stared at him for a moment and started laughing. Walter joined in a few moments later. Paige wiped at her eyes she laughed so hard. "I guess we got to have a long talk with him about that." She finally said.

"Probably wouldn't be wise to make him undo it or confess though." Walter told her.

"Who said anything about that? I just don't want him to do it anymore going forward; I don't want him getting in trouble." Paige smiled.

"You think Cabe would run you by your place before the Garage? See if you can find that USB drive? It's probably ruined but I hope not." Walter asked.

Paige pulled the curtain back and took the basins back into the restroom and emptied them and washed them out. As she stepped back out into his room, "I guess we can do that."

Walter smiled, "Maybe bring me my laptop too?"

Paige laughed, "You aren't going to try and sign yourself out are you?"

Walter looked a bit sheepish, "Cabe told you about that huh?"

Paige nodded her head.

Walter smiled, "No, I'll need it to look at the drive. Besides with these wraps on my hands it will be a little tricky to try and do the hacking needed to do that."

Paige walked over and got his laptop off the other bed and brought it to him. "We were a little worried about the security of the hospital computers so we had a certain genius go in and secure them so no one could mess with your record. That was right after Toby tried to get into the room to see you the other morning."

Walter smiled as he took the laptop and sat it on his table. Paige just stared at him, "What? You're not going to jump on it?" Paige was dumbfounded.

Walter shook his head, "With you here, I don't think so." He patted his bed and she turned and sat on the edge and scooted back and laid back against him and he wrapped his arms around her and hugged her tightly.

They heard a knock on the door and then it opened and a different nurse walked in, "Mr. O'Brien, I'm Stephanie and I'll be taking over for your other nurse."

"Hello Stephanie, you can call me Walter if you want." Walter told her as he closed his eyes again.

"I've got to draw blood to test for infection. Also your cardiologist is making round so you should see him in about ten to twenty minutes." Stephanie told him as she stepped over to his right side and he extended his right hand so she could draw blood.

"You guys been married long," Stephanie asked.

"We've been dating about a year now." They both answered.

Sylvester won his argument to allow him to perform a forensic analysis on the city computers but had to do so under the watch of LAPD computer science division. He kept swearing as he searched the systems, "Son of a bee sting. Whoever did this is good."

Happy looked at him, "So what does that mean?"

"It means while I can prove someone was in here messing around at the time I can't prove that they changed these records." Sylvester told her.

"Your order gives you another ten minutes," the tech told him.

"Come on Sly, at this time Walter was in a medically induced coma. No one else is skilled enough to hide their tracks from you." Happy told him.

Sylvester looked up, "Of course, it's the only answer." Sylvester initiated another command, "Got it!" Suddenly the system files reverted back to their original data.

"So who did it?" Happy asked.

"No one I can prove." Sylvester told her.

Happy smacked his arm, "Who do you think then?"

Sylvester leaned over, "Ralph."

Happy stared at him.

"So you see your honor, while I can't prove who did it, clearly the files were altered, masterly so. All the tickets that were attributed to Toby have been corrected including the removal of false violations. And we have been able to verify with twelve of the officers in question by their ticket books that the corrected data is correct." Sylvester informed the judge.

"Mr. Means, do you have anything to add before I rule on the traffic violations?" The judge asked.

"Not at this time your honor." Mr. Means answered.

"Very well I rule that all charges stemming from the traffic violations be dropped, that leaves us the issue of the impersonation charge." The judge said.

"Your honor, I was advised today that Mr. O'Brien is now awake due to an alleged malfunctioning medicine dispenser." Mr. Means advised the court.

"Your honor is my colleague suggesting my client somehow manipulated a medical device from jail so he could get bail?" Sylvester asked.

"Don't get so dramatic Mr. Dodd. Mr. Means, have you secured a statement from Mr. O'Brien concerning if Mr. Curtis is his personal physician or not?" The judge asked.

"Not yet your honor, I do have sworn statements by agent Cabe Gallo and Mr. O'Brien's girlfriend, a Ms Dineen that when Mr. Curtis quit his job at Scorpion that he also terminated his responsibility to Mr. O'Brien's care. Further agent Gallo sworn statement shows that when Mr. Curtis was advised about Mr. O'Brien's health that the defendant claimed he would see him the next day and then never went to see him." Mr. Means told him as he handed the bailiff the documents.

"Your honor, I move that Ms. Dineen's statement be stricken, she is not in fact Mr. O'Brien's girlfriend. That she broke up with him the same night that Mr. Curtis quit and we believe her statements are meant as some kind of retribution over a disagreement with my client when she quit our company the other day." Sylvester argued.

The judge looked through the statements, "Mr. Means are you able to shed some light on this matter?"

"Your honor I ask for a continuance on your ruling until I can speak with Ms. Dineen and Mr. O'Brien." Mr. Means asked.

The judge looked at his watch, "Very well, we'll stand adjourned until 3 PM this afternoon and why don't we convene in Mr. O'Brien's room if his Dr says its okay." The judge struck his gavel.

Paige turned in the documents from the accident and the adjuster wrote her a check settlement. To avoid having to meet their tow truck the next day to get Walter's car she wrote him a check for hundred dollars. Cabe came walking back in hanging up his phone as the agent left.

"Hey kid, looks like the prosecutor wants to meet with us and Walter in about an hour. We good to head to the hospital," Cabed asked.

Paige looked at her watch, "I better call Sara and see if she can pick up Ralph as well then. I don't think we can make it to the school by the time he is released depending on how long this meeting lasts. Also the adjuster was very stingy, he discounted how much they are willing to reimburse because of the damage Walter did with the sledgehammer."

Cabe nodded, "Give an insurance company a foothold and they will milk you for all they can."

They found Walter napping when they returned to his room, Paige smiled as she quietly stepped up and leaned over and kissed him.

Walter woke with a start but smiled and kissed her back.

"How you feeling kid," Cabe asked after they separated.

"Better now," Walter smiled. Paige held up the USB drive and he reached out and she dropped it into his hand. Walter struggled to pick it up between his thumb and fingers but the wrapping on his hands prevented that level of manipulation and he quickly looked at Paige and smiled, "I think I need your help for his."

Paige nodded as she took the drive back. Walter moved over a bit and patted the bed next to him and she sat down and moved over and up next to him. She reached over and grabbed his laptop and turned it on. After it booted up she slid the drive into the USB port.

The system had a problem accessing the drive so Walter instructed her how to access the Garage's VPN and then accessed the mainframe and using back up tools from it he guided her in how to access the drive and found that most of the data was corrupted. He had her open a shell prompt and type in a series of commands and they finally got a rough directory of files from the drive. Looking down the list he pointed at one called Tobias and she clicked it. The data within it was skewed but enough was still valid and Walter had her scroll through the data as he read quickly. As she reached the end of the file, "My God, did he actually succeed?" Walter mumbled.

Cabe looked up from his chair and the magazine he was reading, "What's that kid?"

Paige looked back at him, "Walter? What is it?"

"Cabe, could you get me access to Collins's computer again? I need an uncorrupted copy of this file. But if I read this right, Collins actually perfected some kind of brain interface that could allow him to code instructions to control someone's mind. And if the name on the file is any indication I'm guessing Toby was a recipient of this tech." Walter told them.

Cabe had gone back to reading his magazine and Walter and Paige had dozed off in his bed with Walter's arms wrapped around her waist.

The judge walked around the corner and into Walter's room followed by Mr. Means and Sylvester and the court recorder. Cabe looked up and his face darkened upon seeing Sylvester. The judge smiled as Walter and Paige came into view. He turned to Mr. Means and Sylvester, "Looks to me like Ms Dineen is still his girlfriend."

Mr. Means smiled and nodded his head. "I would agree your honor."

"Son of a bee sting," Sylvester whispered.

"I'm agent Cabe Gallo, can I help you?" Cabe asked.

"Judge Marshall, good to meet you agent Gallo. Mr. Dodd tried to convince the court that Ms Dineen was no longer Mr. O'Brien's girlfriend and I decided to find out for myself. This is Cheryl my court recorder; she'll be maintaining a transcript of this meeting for the court." The judge told him.

Paige stirred which caused Walter to wince and groan at the pressure placed against his hands, "Baby?" Paige asked as she looked back hearing his groan.

Walter's eyes opened, "Paige, Walter, this is Judge Marshall, he's over Toby's case, this is Mr. Means the prosecutor and you should remember Sylvester." Cabe told them.

The judge stepped forward and shook Paige's hand, "I'd shake yours too if you weren't so injured Mr. O'Brien, fantastic work by the way, dealing with that terrorist."

Walter still half asleep tried to smile and nodded his head, "Thank you."

"This is just an meeting to gather some facts, we were made aware that you were out of the coma and I wanted to verify a few things with you." The judge told him.

Walter nodded as he continued to hold Paige.

"According to Mr. Dodd you are no longer Walter's girlfriend, is that true?" The judge looked at Paige.

"That's incorrect your honor," Walter spoke up first, "She never stopped being my girlfriend. We did have a fight and she stormed out but our feelings never changed. She was and forever will be the love of my life."

Paige smiled back at Walter, "I feel the same way Walter does your honor. I was very upset with Walter that night but you can ask my son, I had told him it was my intention to cool off and then talk with Walter about what happened."

The judge smiled and nodded, "Mr. Means do you have any questions for this fine couple?"

"No your honor, I believe they answered all my questions." Mr. Means said smiling.

"Mr. Dodd, do you have any questions?" The judge asked.

Sylvester was looking everywhere but at Cabe or Walter and Paige, "Not at this time your honor. I would just like to request reasonable bail for my client."

The judge looked at Walter, "Mr. O'Brien, do you have anything you'd like to add officially to the record?"

Walter nodded, "Thank you your honor. Until the other day I had considered Mr. Dodd, Mr. Curtis and Ms Quinn as family. But after all they have chosen to do I am finished with them. What they did to me, I could forgive but learning what they did to the woman I love I can't forgive. I do not trust any of them and as I am in no position to defend the ones I love or myself I would feel safer knowing he is behind bars."

Sylvester looked stunned and softly said, "Walter?"

"Quiet Mr. Dodd, Mr. Means?" The judge asked.

"Your honor I continue to press for remand clearly this family is concerned about their wellbeing." Mr. Means told him.

The judge nodded, "Mr. O'Brien, what if I ordered ankle monitoring?"

Walter smiled, "Your honor, ankle monitors are too easy to defeat. If my hands were fully functional I could show you how to defeat it in less than thirty seconds."

They stared at Walter, "There is a chip in all monitors that is susceptible to a magnetic pulse. With the properly modulated pulse the device would unlock and give you a 40 second window you could slip the device onto someone else or even a pet and the system wouldn't even know it."

"If I have some techs come to the hospital tomorrow could you show them how this is done?" The judge asked.

"Of course your honor," Walter told him.

"Very well, I'm ordering the defendant remanded until tomorrow and if Mr. O'Brien can successful demonstrate this technique then I will remand him until trial." The judge said.


	16. Chapter 16

Saturday morning Cabe and Ralph had just left Kovelsky's after having breakfast on their way to the hospital. "How do you really think Dad is doing Grandpa?" Ralph looked up at him as he drove.

Cabe smiled, "Well his Dr is certainly positive and his hands looked really good. I'm just glad the swelling around his nose has gone down, even though a busted nose isn't that big of a deal it looked so painful."

"I like that his immune system has responded so well to the stimulants and antibiotics, it was really scary thinking he could end up with multiple organ damage, possibly failure." Ralph admitted.

Cabe glanced over, "How do you know about that?"

"I read the Dr's notes. You guys were being so closed lipped about everything and I needed to know." Ralph told him.

"Boy if it wasn't impossible I'd swear you were Walter's biological child," Cabe told him as he started laughing.

Ralph frowned, "I am as far as I am concerned. He's been there since day one for me; and Mom of course."

Cabe smiled, "He sure has son."

After Cabe parked he pulled out his phone and called Paige. "Morning Cabe," Paige answered her phone.

"Morning kid, just wanted to call and let you know Ralph and I just got to the hospital." Cabe told her.

Paige looked at Walter a little puzzled, "O-kay, come on up."

Cabe laughed, "I didn't think Ralph would enjoy seeing you guys in bed together like the nurse the other day."

Paige laughed, "Oh, smart thinking. But we've been up for a couple of hours, just got done giving him his bath."

"Okay kid, we'll see you in a few then," Cabe told her as he hung up.

* * *

Ralph ran into Walter's room, "Hi Mom, Dad," he said and hugged his Mom and then Walter.

"Good morning Ralph," they both told him.

"I've got to go to the Garage to take care of a few things; did you want to keep Walter," Paige paused and looked at Walter, "I mean, would you like to keep your Dad company Ralph?" Paige asked.

Ralph smiled at her words, "I would, but I kind of like to go see Ferret Bueller too, I haven't seen him in almost a month now, if you don't mind Dad?" Ralph asked.

Walter smiled, "Just bring me back some fermented fish."

They all laughed.

* * *

Ralph looked up to the front seat of Cabe's SUV, "Mom?"

Paige turned in her seat and looked back, "Yea baby?"

"While I do want to see Ferret Bueller, that isn't the real reason I wanted to come with you." Ralph told her.

Paige looked puzzled, "I don't understand baby, why didn't you just tell us the truth?"

"Remember when we were staying at Grandpa's? You promised me we could call Drew last weekend, I know that got interrupted by Dad's hospitalization. But I wanted to be sure we did it today." Ralph explained.

Paige nodded, "I do remember. Are you sure that's what you want to do? We won't be able to go back once we ask. Drew will be hurt once we ask."

"Do you think he will hurt as much as you or I hurt when he left us? How much it hurt you when we had to leave our home and most of our things because we couldn't afford the rent or a place to store them? Or as much as it hurt you when all his friends kept coming over to hit on you but none of them bothered to even help us out? Or how much it hurts that in all those years he's never once sent me a birthday card or a Christmas gift? Or how much it hurts every time he tries to weasel out of visitation with me or doesn't have time to speak with me when it's supposed to be our scheduled time to talk on the phone?" Ralph asked her.

Paige sat looking back at him with tears in her eyes, "I keep forgetting just how much you remember from that time in our lives. I am so sorry about that Ralphy."

"I'm not, I'm grateful for Drew because I am alive because of the two of you. But I don't believe that gratitude should bind me to someone who really doesn't want to be a part of my life. And Dad's wanted nothing more than to be part of my life from the very first day he met us and I'd rather be bound to him if he wants me that way too." Ralph smiled.

Cabe cleared his throat as he choked down the tears of sorrow and joy at the honest conversation next to him. "Walter will be only too happy for that to be official, but official or not, I know he truly considers you his son."

Ralph and Paige both smiled at Cabe.

* * *

"Hey Ralph, umm, don't you think you are a little big to be sitting on your Mother's lap?" Drew said as he answered their video chat.

Ralph made a face as he looked up at his Mom, "Look Drew, Ralph has something very serious to discuss with you." Paige told him already annoyed.

"Yea, well now isn't the best time and if you are calling about coming to Maine next weekend for two weeks I've got to cancel we got too much going on here." Drew told them.

"See? What did I tell you? It's always about him and what's going on in his life. I could be in the hospital dying and he'd have some excuse why he couldn't come." Ralph said as he stood up. "Drew, just do me one favor for once in your life." Ralph told Drew as he turned and left to go see Ferret Bueller.

"Hey Ralph, you don't talk to your Dad like that. Hey, come back here." Drew called after him.

"No, he won't come back and I won't make him either. Drew, you have been nothing but a big baby these past almost twelve years and nothing but a big disappointment to Ralph since you "came back"," Paige made quotation marks with her fingers, "into his life. I can't believe I even tried to defend you to him last week." Paige told him hotly.

"Do you know how many times in the last three years you have postponed visitations and phone calls with Ralph? Or how many of those postponements never got rescheduled? Not to mention every time, every time it's us paying for the few trips for Ralph to come see you or to call you. You never call us and you never offer to reimburse us and we won't even get on the subject of child support, past or present." Paige continued.

"Hey, I offered to bring you guys out here to live on my dime, you're the one that wanted to stay there." Drew shot back.

"Right, as unreliable as you have been in our lives do you really think I would have trusted you to provide for us? Do you know what Ralph told us on our way to the Garage today?" Paige asked.

Drew shook his head. Paige proceeded to tell him everything Ralph said unprompted in front of Cabe.

"Look, I don't have to put up with this." Drew said.

"You're right, you don't. That's why you'll be receiving a registered letter in a few days as soon as I get the forms Ralph wants me to get. Don't worry, I'll make sure it's all filled out so all you have to do is sign and notarize them." Paige told him.

"What forms?" Drew asked.

"Ralph wants you to sign over your parental rights. So if the man he wants to be his father says yes he can legally adopt him." Paige told him.

"Hell no, Ralph is my kid, not someone else's." Drew shouted.

"Don't make me laugh Drew. The only time Ralph is "yours"," she made quotation marks with her fingers, "is when you don't have anything better going on and Ralph is sick of it. If I don't have the signed papers back in two weeks after you receive them I'm going to file a petition with the courts myself. I'm tired of you hurting my son."

"Look, I'm sorry, can't we talk about this?" Drew whined.

"We tried to talk and you did what you always do, blame it on something else. We'll I'm sick of it and Ralph is finally sick of it." Paige told him.

Cabe walked up behind Paige, "Hey Drew, agent Gallo, Homeland. Just as a friendly piece of advice, I'd seriously consider giving Ralph the one thing he has actually asked you for. You never know when you might be in need in the future and that one act of kindness could end up helping you. You get my drift?"

"Are you threatening me?" Drew asked.

Cabe laughed, "Nope, just pointing out a possibility."

"Good bye Drew," Paige told him.

* * *

"Wait," Drew got out before Paige hit disconnect and turned off her laptop.

Drew slammed his hand on the table, "How could they even think I would agree to that? I'll have to hire a great attorney; no doubt she'll have the best shark in California."

"Hey Drew, what's with all the racket in here?" Drew looked to see the buxom redhead he'd been living with the last few months coming out of the bathroom.

"Oh my damn ex and kid, want me to sign away my parental rights so some jerk can adopt him." Drew told her as he sat there brooding.

"So? Do it, it's not like you spend much time with him, you said so yourself. You've talked to him once since we've been living together. You always complain they demand too much from you. Cut your losses let them go. We got our futures to worry with." She told him as she stepped up behind him and wrapped her arms around his neck and hugged him.

Drew smiled, "Yea, your right. If they don't want me, to hell with them I just need to send her a text."

* * *

Paige was riding quietly in the SUV; she'd been pretty upset since their call with Drew. She looked down as her phone vibrated and she pulled it out and saw she had a message from Drew, "Include a letter releasing me from all child support past and present and I'll sign your damn forms."

Paige smiled as she sent back, "Deal." 'Cheap bastard,' she thought.

Cabe looked at her with a smile, "Walter missing you already?"

Paige shook her head, "Drew has agreed to sign the forms so Walter can adopt Ralph."

Ralph looked up, "Really?" He asked excitedly.

Paige nodded, "Really."

Cabe got a quick glance at her message and his face darkened but he didn't say anything.

* * *

Walter had made friends with one of the maintenance men that came in to adjust things and he'd inquired about any junk equipment the hospital was getting rid of and he brought it up to him and Walter spent the time that Paige was gone cannibalizing the pieces. While his hands were well on their way to healing he had to take his time as to not irritate his wounds. He had a number of the components extracted when he smelled the fermented fish and he smiled and moved the items to the nightstand beside his bed.

"Hey Dad," Ralph exclaimed as he ran into the room and gave him a hug. He looked at the gear, "What are you doing?" Ralph looked at him puzzled.

Walter smiled, "I'm building an electromagnetic pulse device."

Ralph smiled, "Cool, can I help?"

Walter laughed, "If you'd like to. My hands could use a serious break."

"You should have told me, I could have stayed and helped. I could have seen Ferret Bueller tomorrow." Ralph told him.

Walter reached out and touched his cheek, "You're my boy."

Ralph smiled, "You're my Dad."

Paige and Cabe stood at the door and just listened with tears in their eyes.

"How's my man?" Paige finally asked as she stepped on into the room.

"Better now that you guys are back, everything good at the Garage?" Walter smiled as she kissed him.

"Yep, got your car sold to a scrapper and with his check and the insurance check we got $12,000 to get you another car unless you want to take out a loan?" Paige sat down next to him in his bed and Walter wrapped his arms around her.

"I missed you," he whispered into her ear and kissed her just below and behind her ear.

Paige shivered and smiled, "I missed you too."

Paige sat with Walter and fed him his fermented fish, Walter had tried to convince her she didn't need to but she was more than willing to put up with the smell just to spend more time snuggled up with him. Ralph sat at the end of Walter's bed stripping component after component out of the equipment as Walter and Paige watched. "I got to say, if I understood what you were doing maybe this would be more exciting." Paige told them with a laugh.

"We're making an electromagnetic pulse device," Ralph told her excitedly.

Paige frowned and looked back at Walter, "I thought you already demonstrated the vulnerability of the ankle monitors?"

"I did, this is for something else. Something needed if what I believe Collins did is true." Walter told her hugging her tightly against him.

Paige half turned and lay her head against his shoulder, "What do you think he did to Toby?"

Walter stared at her for a moment and then laughed. "I should have known you'd realize the truth. Remember that device that I told you about, the brain interface, I think Collins might have put it in Toby. If he did, this device would disable it and might allow a surgeon to remove it."

Paige grew a bit distant.

"Paige?" Walter asked.

"Do you think that is what made him do what he did to us?" Paige asked quietly.

"On its own, maybe, but it would depend on when it was implanted. I don't recall Toby having any head wounds before that day." Walter told her.

"Am I wrong for feeling like I don't give a crap if he has this thing in his head?" Paige asked.

Walter smiled, "No, not at all. But if its there, it could potentially make him a threat for the rest of our lives. I'd rather destroy it so we can quit worrying about him."

"Well, I guess this is a good time to tell you that when Dr Anning hypnotized me, we found out that Toby had hypnotized Happy and Sylvester at the same time too." Paige told him as she clung to his arms around her. "Did I disappoint you by not telling you earlier?"

Walter leaned forward and kissed her neck again, "Nope, you're working through a lot of things my love. You have my support no matter what."

Paige turned her head and kissed Walter and whispered softly, "When Cabe picks Ralph up tonight and after your night meds, I'm going to reward you for that."

Ralph had his head turned while they talked and he heard his Mom's whisper and he smiled. Even if Drew didn't sign the paperwork he knew Walter truly loved him and considered him his son just as he considered Walter his Dad and if worse came to worse, once he turned 18, Walter could adopt him without Drew's permission, if he wanted. Surely he would, right? He thought. But he really hoped it wouldn't come to that. He didn't hate Drew but he was sick of being treated the way Drew always treated him.

Cabe and Allie spent the afternoon and evening at her place enjoying their time together without Ralph or anyone else around. Just as they prepared to leave to pick up Ralph Cabe's phone rang, Cabe groaned as he looked at the screen, "Who is it dear?" Allie asked.

"Sylvester," Cabe said with disgust. "Gallo," Cabe said answering his phone.

"Hey Cabe, I know I am not on your friendly list right now but I was wondering, do you, do you think Walter and Paige would let me stop by to talk with them? Not about the case or anything like that. I-I was really shocked the other day when Walter said what he did to the judge. I-It kind of woke me up in a way." Sylvester tried to explain.

"I don't know Sylvester; I guess I can ask them when we stop by in a little bit." Cabe told him.

Sylvester caught his choice to call him Sylvester instead of Sly, he hadn't called him Sylvester in over two years and a tear ran down his cheek, "I'd really appreciate it Cabe, thank you."

As Cabe hung up, "What did he want dear?"

"He wants to talk with Walter and Paige, not as Toby's attorney but as himself. Said that what Walter told him the other day shocked him." Cabe told her.


	17. Chapter 17

"Did you hear what I said Walter?" Cabe asked. They'd all been staring at Walter for over a minute after Cabe had told him that Sylvester wanted permission to come see them as a 'friend'.

Walter sat looking out the window, the evening had brought a change to the weather, and he could see the lightning in the distance, growing closer ever minute it. Slowly he nodded his head.

Paige looked at Cabe, "Maybe we should give Walter the night to decide. There's no rush to decide on this."

Cabe nodded as he turned to Ralph, "You ready to go kid?"

Ralph nodded his head as he got up and walked over and hugged Walter, "I really hope they decide to release you tomorrow. I'd rather stay at the loft with you."

Walter smiled, "That would make me very happy Ralph, love you buddy."

Paige hugged Ralph and kissed his cheek, "Be good, we'll see you tomorrow either way." Paige watched as they walked out of the room and she sighed as she turned to look at Walter, "You want to talk about it?"

Walter smiled as he patted the bed next to him. Paige returned the smile and sat down on the edge and scooted back in and lay down against Walter as he wrapped his arms around and held her. "Since I woke up, and finally realized you were really here and not some figment of my imagination, I've been happier than I have ever been. The thought of Sly or the others back in my life, it spoils that feeling. What do I do? When it's a matter of heart, I've always turned to you."

Paige scooted to her left and rolled onto her right side, laying her head on his shoulder as she stretched her left arm across his chest, "I don't know to be honest. I've been counting on you since you woke up to guide me. But you know, when it came to how I felt about Florence you told me you supported me no matter how I wanted to proceed, even offering to give me the evidence to have her prosecuted for helping that whack job. That meant so much to me, to know I could chose and you'd be there to support me. So while I am not really interested in renewing any connection with Sly or the others, I respect that you were friends with them for a long time before me, and I will support you if you want to invite them back into your life or if you don't."

Walter smiled and hugged her tightly.

Walter's Dr wasn't crazy about the idea but the cardiologist was onboard with it, and with Cabe promising to be there to help Paige bring him up or down the ramp to the loft she agreed to release him after setting up thrice weekly visits of a wound care nurse, and physical therapists to care for his wounds, and work his muscles. She gave Paige and Cabe a stern lecture about his feet and wanted him brought in two times a week so she could check them herself.

* * *

Walter was so happy to be back in the Garage, after Megan's time in the hospital he had grown very uncomfortable in them. "You know, I think we need to consider cleaning out Happy's area. It consumes a large section of the floor space. Probably wouldn't hurt to consider reorganizing the whole work area. We could sell of the equipment left over there; it should all belong to Scorpion anyway." He slowly looked at the desks, "With Sylvester gone we can reposition the desks where we might like them better. We could redo the area around the couch make it a more inviting kind of thing, like an office waiting room, maybe put up some partitions to separate it from the rest of the Garage?" Walter looked at Paige and Cabe.

They both nodded, "Sure son, if that's what you want to do. Did you decide on meeting with Sly yet?"

Walter shook his head no, "Ralph, do you mind grabbing Ferret Bueller for me please?"

Paige pushed him on over to his desk and pulled out his office chair and pushed him under the desk. Cabe set his laptop down in front of him. "I think I'll go make some coffee, you guys want some?" Cabe asked as he walked to the kitchen.

"Sure," they both answered. Ralph handed Ferret Bueller over to Walter, Bueller was only too happy to see him again and he chattered up a storm as if telling him how much he was missed.

After checking the kitchen and only finding a scoop of coffee in the can, "Hey Walt, you got anymore coffee?" Cabe asked.

"I hadn't been to the store in a while, maybe up in the loft?" Walter answered as Ferret lay curled up in his arms.

Paige pulled a note pad from her desk and walked into the kitchen and took inventory of everything inside the kitchen. She heard Cabe swear and wrote down coffee while smiling. "Okay, I'll run over to the mini-mart and grab a can of coffee." Cabe told Walter as he came down the stairs.

Walter smiled, "Let me give you some money." Walter struggled trying to get his wallet out but he wasn't having much luck with his hands the way they were still recovering.

"That's okay kid; I can spring for it for once." Cabe told him as he smiled.

Paige walked out of the kitchen, and walked upstairs as continued her inventory. By the time she finished Walter had Ralph put Ferret Bueller back up. She sat at her desk and made up the rest of the shopping list. She looked over at Walter, "Is there anything you can think of that you want?"

"Actually, I'm dying for some of your chicken cacciatore." Walter told her.

Paige smiled, almost shyly, "Really? Okay, I'll grab everything I need to make it."

"Just charge it to your Scorpion charge card." Walter told her.

"My charge card, I figured you cancelled it. I didn't destroy it so it should still be in my wallet." Paige told him a little shocked as she pulled out her purse and verified it was still there.

Walter shook his head no, "As sure as I was that you were gone, I just couldn't bring myself to do that. I couldn't even get rid of any of your things upstairs."

Paige smiled; "I noticed when I was here earlier in the week when I called the insurance company, I've still got your clothes at my place. I was wearing your one shirt the night you came over so there was blood all over it, but I am sure it all washed out. When Cabe gets back I'll go to the store."

* * *

Ralph and Walter worked on the magnetic pulse device while Paige was gone. After she returned Cabe helped get Walter up to the loft and he continued working with Ralph while Paige prepared dinner that evening.

They sat together for their first family dinner in the loft since before that night. Walter was so happy, he couldn't stop grinning and smiling, everything seemed better now that they were back together.

Later that night as Paige helped him to exercise his legs in bed Walter put his hand on hers and she looked up at him, the night had been so perfect it gave him just enough courage to ask, "Paige, I was wondering, I don't know how much time is left on your lease but I-I was wanting you both to consider moving in here with me, permanently. And if you would rather be married before doing that, I'd understand and I would be very happy to propose to you as soon as I could get you a ring."

Paige stared at him, completely surprised and shocked. Finally as her eyes filled with tears, "You don't have to have a ring to propose you know, we could always get one later," she winked at him before adding, "If I say yes."

Walter smile, "Hey Ralph, would you come here please?" Walter called out.

Paige looked at him puzzled as the door opened and Ralph walked in.

Walter gestured and Ralph stepped on over to the bed, "Ralph, I'd like your permission to ask your Mom to marry me."

Both Ralph and Paige smiled and Ralph nodded his head as he fell down on his knees next to Walter and hugged him. Paige reached down and rubbed Ralph's back as he began crying.

Walter smiled up at Paige as he continued to hug the young man, "Paige, I promise to continue to improve, hopefully never to make a mistake with you again, and if I do, never to make the same mistake twice. You've been the light I've needed my whole life. My only regret is it took me so long to find you. But by taking so long, it gave me time to be open to the possibility of you and me, and along the way it afforded you time to bring our son into this world, and for that I will always be grateful. Will you do me the honor of marrying me?"

Tears welled up in both their eyes, and finally Paige nodded and she threw her arms around them both.

* * *

Cabe unlocked the door and stepped into the Garage. Stepping over to the security panel he pulled out his notepad, and entered the ridiculously long pass code that Ralph had made up, turning the system off. He looked up to the loft, and saw the top of Paige's head in the kitchen, "Hey Walt, Paige, good morning."

Paige smiled as stepped over to the rail and looked down, "Morning Cabe, come on up." Just before he reached the top they heard a small bell tinkle and Paige walked back to the bathroom.

"Hey Grandpa, Ralph called out as he paused his video game and came running over and hugged Cabe.

"Good morning, you are looking pretty happy this morning, have a good night?" Cabe asked as they parted.

Ralph nodded, "Dad asked Mom to marry him and she said yes!" Ralph exclaimed.

Cabe smiled real big as Ralph saw a tear in his eye. "That's great news then," Cabe told him, "Am I taking you to school today?"

Ralph smiled, "If you want to."

Cabe frowned and pointed at the dining table, "What is that thing?"

Ralph smiled, "It's an electromagnetic pulse device I helped Walter build. It's for something to do with Toby."

"Good morning Cabe," Walter said as Paige pushed him out into the dining room.

"Hey kid, did you guys want me to take Ralph to school?" Cabe asked.

"Actually if you got time after breakfast we'll go with you, and if you don't mind take us to look at some used cars?" Walter asked.

Cabe nodded, "If you're ready and that's what you want. I know Paige's car isn't the best to try and haul the chair around with. I don't mind driving you. You could just wait until you don't need the chair before looking at cars."

Paige brought out a large dish of scrambled eggs, a heaping plate of bacon, and went back to bring out biscuits, orange juice and a pot of coffee.

Cabe smiled, "I haven't seen a spread like this since the corps."

Paige smiled as she brought a glass of milk to Ralph, "Eat up guys, don't let it get cold."

* * *

"We'll see you this evening Ralph, I love you buddy." Walter told Ralph as he hugged him.

Ralph smiled and hugged his Mom before he ran up to the school doors.

"Okay, so where did you want to go car shopping?" Cabe asked.

Walter looked at Paige, "Well, if you were serious about taking me anyplace I needed to go until I am out of that chair we could delay looking at cars. Maybe you could take us by A.J. Jewelers?"

Cabe suppressed a smile as he looked at Walter in the back seat, "A.J.'s? Aren't they famous for personalized engagement rings?"

Walter smiled, "Paige said yes last night."

Cabe smiled, "It's about time kids. I was beginning to think I was going to have to drag you both to a church and force you to get married, congratulations!"

* * *

Walter and Paige sat looking at all kinds of pictures of rings that A.J.'s had done in the past, so many it was almost overwhelming. Paige was certainly balking at the prices. "Walter I really like the sentiment, but the prices, their more than what my car cost, after interests." Paige fretted.

Cabe kind of ticked his head, "More then my first house cost."

The salesgirl tried playing up to Walter, "But look at how gorgeous these rings would look on her beautiful finger." Walter nodded as he was able to instantly translate the images of rings to her finger in his mind, he looked at Paige with a large grin on his face and it quickly faded as he saw her disapproving stare back.

He forced another smile, "It's your ring Paige so the only opinion that truly matters here is yours. I'm willing to spend whatever you want to ensure you get the ring you want."

Paige smiled, "Good boy, but these are way too expensive. I don't really need a custom made ring. I'd like to see what you have in a more traditional style."

Clearly disappointed, the salesgirl figured that Walter would be the stick in the mud. After about another hour Paige finally settled on a gold band with two heart-shaped loops interwoven on top with two heart-cut rubies just "kissing" inside of them. It was still about a thousand dollars more than Paige wanted to spend but she liked the idea of the rubies representing hearts instead of their birthstones.

* * *

As Cabe got Walter back inside the Garage, "Cabe, you think you could set up a meeting between the judge, the DA and the guys with us for me?"

Cabe nodded, "I can call the DA and see what he says."

Cabe stepped outside as Paige looked at Walter, "You want to renew your friendship with them?"

Walter could see the apprehension in her face so he took her hands in his, and pulled against her until she turned and sat down on his lap. Wrapping his arms around her, "No, but regardless to how 'innocent' their actions have been they still decided to abandon me when I had done nothing wrong to them. But out of the friendship we once shared, I have to do what I can for them. They can then go on to live their lives."

Paige smiled, "They don't deserve you." She kissed him deeply.

Cabe walked back in and saw them kissing and smiled, "Okay, the DA said the judge has an opening for thirty minutes tomorrow at 10 AM, and he can arrange for everyone to be there."

Paige smiled at Walter as they broke their kiss. "Thanks Cabe, would you be available to take us there?"

Cabe smiled, "Of course I can. What's the game plan?"

"Well, when I get close enough I plan to use the pulse device on Toby and neutralize the implant. I'll turn over a copy of the relevant data to the judge, DA and Sylvester. They can make whatever decisions they want based on the new information. We can also tell them about Toby hypnotizing all three of them and they can get someone to break that. Oh you better make sure everyone leaves their phones, tablets, laptops and bankcards someplace else. The device will wipe their magnetic media, and that will go for us as well. Make sure the judge and DA don't have a pacemaker or insulin pump as well." Walter told them.

* * *

**Greetings dear readers, tomorrow's story will be continuing the Uncivil War story line. Keep an eye out for 'You Think Bat Poop Is Crazy'! BTW I am going to set up an AU go fund me account, Walter seriously needs a stunt double. Only AU currency will be accepted. To the Adventure! -Tim**


	18. Chapter 18

Walter sat in his wheelchair beside the bench outside of the conference room that Cabe had arranged for their meeting; Paige sat on the bench next to him holding his hand. Both of their nerves were quite high. Cabe had spoke with Dr Anning and she had agreed to come to speak about the hypnotizing that Toby had performed on Paige and the others. Walter pulled out a special case and opened it and put his wallet and phone inside as did Paige. He looked at Cabe and he tossed his wallet and phone in as did Dr Anning to be safe.

Mr. Means the DA walked up and greeted them and they introduced Dr Anning. He opened the door and they all went inside and took seats on one side of the table and waited. A few minutes later Sylvester and Happy arrived and took seats on the opposite side. "What's all the mystery O'Brien?" Happy asked a bit snotty.

"It's good seeing you again Walter," Sylvester told him.

Walter started to say something when the side door opened and a guard brought Toby in wearing cuffs and put him in a chair between Sylvester and Happy. "Hey, look, it's the rat, come to see me did you? Nice wheelchair." Toby told him as he laughed.

Walter placed the device on the table and pushed it as close as he could to Toby and then flicked the switch. The lights flickered for a second and then stabilized as Toby passed out. "What the hell O'Brien, what did you do?" Happy yelled as she turned with Sylvester to Toby and checked for a pulse.

"He's fine now," Walter told them. He looked at Paige, "Love, the paperwork please?"

Paige pulled out a file folder and handed it to him. Walter opened the box and passed everyone back their wallets and phones. He pulled a USB stick from the box and handed it to Mr. Means along with a copy of the paperwork from the folder and he passed a copy to Happy and Sylvester. "You'll need those to take Toby to a neurosurgeon. It will help him understand what he'll find inside of Toby so he can hopefully remove the brain interface inside of Toby's neck.

"Man, you'll just say anything won't you O'Brien. Why don't you just leave us alone and let us get this over with. You know Toby wasn't trying to hurt you." Happy yelled at him.

The door at the other end of the conference room opened and the judge walked in, "My apologies, I was unavoidably detained, seems like someone in here is upset."

"Yes I'm upset, he attacked Toby." Happy complained to the judge.

"Your Honor, I did not attack Toby and if I might be permitted to explain I believe you will understand." Walter looked at the judge as he sat down.

"You asked for this meeting Mr. O'Brien, the floor is yours." The judge told him.

"Thank you your Honor." Walter looked at Cabe, "On the evening that we were able to end the threat of Mark Collins I discovered on his computer system this file." Walter slid a copy of the document to the judge. "In short this document describes in great detail a device that is a highly sophisticated brain interface module, something that Collins and I had worked on together many years ago. With a notable exception, this device is actually designed to control thoughts. Because of the file name I speculated that he targeted Toby and implanted the device and through it has actually controlled Toby for sometime, although I don't know for how long to be honest."

"You're just mad because we all walked out on you and now you are just seeking some kind of revenge against us." Happy declared.

"Ms Quinn, this isn't your time to speak and if Mr. O'Brien is saying what I am thinking he is, you want to listen as this will have the effect of rendering Mr. Curtis not responsible for his actions. Do I understand correctly Mr. O'Brien?" The judge finished.

Walter nodded, "You do your honor. With the help of my son, we built this EMP device and after Toby was brought in I set it off and the only person it affected was Toby which confirms my suspicions. Any Dr should be able to confirm the device and a neurosurgeon would be required to remove it. My best guess would be that it is probably in his neck, its close enough for it to connect to his brain but far enough away not to require extensive surgery. I'd like to ask if he has suffered any unexplained cuts or explained but odd injuries to his neck?" Walter looked from Sylvester to Happy.

Happy shook her head and Sylvester looked at her and tilted his head towards Walter. "Fine, he was injured shortly after we quit Scorpion by a bicyclist. He received a cut on his neck from it."

Walter nodded, "I'd like to take this time to introduce Dr Anning, and she is a psychologist with Homeland. She has been working with Paige over the last couple of weeks when it was speculated that she had been hypnotized."

Dr Anning smiled, "Thank you Walter, your honor, based on a conversation between Paige and agent Gallo, Acting Director Cooper speculated that Paige was subjected to mental manipulation. Using approved psychiatric protocols, and with her permission, and in front of agent Gallo, I was able to hypnotize Paige, and we learned that Mr. Curtis had hypnotized her along with Mr. Dodd and Ms Quinn. The goal of which was to keep them away from Walter, to what end she didn't know, but to also incorporate a command word that he could use to give them commands in case a situation came up and would require too much time to recondition them. Which he used a few times before Paige had been able to break the control herself."

"Sly, do something, object or something." Happy hissed.

"Ms Quinn, there is nothing to object to at this meeting. And given your reported IQ I am inclined to agree with what has been said here, that you have in fact been mentally manipulated because if I can follow this logic you sure as hell should be several steps ahead of me in it." The judge told her before looking at Sylvester, "Mr. Dodd, what is your response to what we have heard?"

"Your Honor, I've been fighting a lot of conflicting thoughts since we all met at Walter's hospital room and after seeing what happened to Toby and hearing the statements provided by Walter and Dr Anning as well as reading this document I have to concur with what they have said and presented." Sylvester told him.

Toby slowly began to regain consciousness, "Oh my head, it feels like I've been on a week long bender."

Happy stared at him for a moment and threw her arms around his neck and hugged him tightly. Toby tried to hug her back but found his hands in cuffs, "What the hell? Why am I in handcuffs?" His eyes opened as he saw Walter across from him, "Oh my gosh, Walter, what happen to you man? Why are you in a wheelchair? Are you okay?"

"What is the last thing you remember Mr. Curtis?" The judge asked.

Toby rubbed at his head, "Well, the last thing I remember clearly was laying on the couch recovering from being hit by the bicyclist, wait, that isn't right, I remember when I got out of Happy's truck to get our pizza Collins surprised me and stuck a needle in my neck. What the hell happened to me? So many thoughts, memories, jumbled together, so hard to make sense out of the chaos."

"Your honor I think that this really concludes my participation in this meeting, I would conclude by encouraging Mr. Means to drop all charges against Toby." Walter told him as he unlocked the wheels on the wheelchair.

"Wait, Walter, you didn't answer me, what happened to you? I seem to remember seeing something on TV about you wrecking your car, is that what is wrong with you?" Toby asked.

Walter shook his head, "Arrogance, pride and stubbornness is what happened to me."

"Thank you Mr. O'Brien for bringing all this to us and helping to serve justice." The judge told him.

Cabe pushed Walter down the hall as Paige walked next to him and Dr Anning stayed behind to see if she could help Happy and Sylvester. Just before they reached the exit, "Walter, please, a minute?" Sylvester called out as he ran up.

Walter sighed as he nodded and Cabe stopped and turned him around to face Sylvester. "Walter, please can I apologize for what I did?"

Walter shook his head, "There's no need, have a good life Sylvester."

"Wait, you gave Paige another chance, why not me?" Sylvester nearly begged.

Walter's face contorted in anger, "The different Sylvester, I actually did something to hurt Paige, I didn't give her another chance, she gave me another chance. I didn't do anything to you; you chose to blame me for the slight you felt from a lying manipulator."

Sylvester looked puzzled. "Flo was working on behalf of Collins Sylvester," Paige told him.

He looked at Cabe and Cabe nodded his head.

"I don't blame you for falling for her manipulations Sylvester; I fell for them myself until a couple of weeks ago. But I didn't turn my back on you, I reached out to you afterwards even after what you did but it fell on deaf ears." Walter told him.

Paige saw the tears in Sylvester's eyes and she turned to face Walter, and squatted beside his chair, she whispered, "You know, I fell for those manipulations and I ignored your calls too, Sly looks so lost and devastated, are you sure you can't forgive him? It would tell me that your forgiveness of me was true."

Walter looked up in surprise and saw the tears in her eyes, "I didn't have to forgive you, you didn't do anything wrong. You forgave me."

Paige shook her head, "Baby, he's one of your oldest friends, I didn't think I would want you to forgive him, or any of them. But to hear his words to see the pain on his face, you asked me what you should do, I now believe you should forgive him, but I will support you if you don't want too. You," she placed her hand against Walter's chest, "You are what is important to me and I don't want you to regret not at least exploring the possibility of forgiving and moving forward and rebuilding your friendship with him."

Walter sat staring back into Paige's eyes, Walter sighed, "I suppose we could invite him over for dinner tonight if you want."

Paige smiled, "I'd like that very much." Paige hugged him and kissed him.

Walter looked at Sylvester, "If you don't have plans, you're welcome to come to the Garage tonight for dinner."

Sylvester smiled, "Thank you, what time should I be there?"

Paige stood up, "Allie won't be there until about 6 PM so we'll be eating a little after that if you want to show up a little early, that's fine."

A tear cascaded down his cheek and he stepped up with his arms open and Paige stepped in and hugged him before they turned and left the courthouse.

* * *

Paige was busy in the kitchen as Walter and Ralph went over his paper for Caltech, "You know, your professor is an idiot." Walter told him.

"Baby, what did we agree on?" Paige said from the kitchen."

Walter smiled at Ralph as he looked at Paige, "Sorry love, Ralph, your professor isn't an idiot, he just bears a striking resemblance to one."

Ralph snickered as Paige looked at them, "That's only marginally better." The smile on her face told Walter she wasn't mad.

They heard a knock on the door and Ralph ran over and opened the door and found Sylvester standing there. Ralph rolled his eyes and walked back over to Walter's desk as Sylvester walked in, "A-am I too early?"

"Come on in Sylvester," Walter said to him.

Sylvester noticed the workbench in Happy's area was gone as was his and Toby's desks. And he swallowed hard. "I brought some apple cider," Sylvester told them nervously.

Paige walked out of the kitchen, "That was very thoughtful, thank you Sly." She kissed his cheek as she took the jug and walked back into the kitchen and put it in the fridge.

"So the DA dropped the charges against Toby thanks to your request and the information you provided. Dr Anning was able to prove that Happy and I were both under a hypnotic command from Toby as well. Sadly most of the stuff I did was my own doing. It seems the only thing I did while under his control was talking Paige out of coming to see you when she wanted to." Sylvester told Walter.

"Yea, it would have been nice if none of it had been your fault I suppose." Walter told him with sarcasm.

"Walter," Paige admonished him from the kitchen.

"No, he's right; I was really hoping that there was a reason beyond me wanting to do what I did for it." Sylvester told her. "The big surprise from that meeting though was that we found out that Toby was actually under a hypnotic command himself from Collins. Apparently when Collins had captured him and had him in that dental floss trap Collins succeeded in hypnotizing him using drugs to weaken his will. Then he just waited until the right moment to activate it. Once the team broke up he called Toby and gave him the code word and the orders to hypnotize all of us to keep us away from Walter to maximize Walter's suffering."

Ralph rolled his eyes and walked into the kitchen and asked for a piece of carrot that Paige was slicing up for dinner. Paige smiled as she gave him a piece.

"Toby really wanted to know more about what happened to you, why you are in the wheelchair. I really didn't know what to tell him, I don't really know myself." Sylvester told Walter.

Ralph grabbed his laptop off Paige's desk and pulled up a video file and handed it to Sylvester and he watched the news report as they played the video showing Walter, Cabe and Ted going after Collins.

Walter was about sick of the news video and he rolled himself into the kitchen and up beside Paige and reached out and gently tugged on her waist. Paige looked back at him and turned and sat down in his lap. "Is there something I can help you with Mr. O'Brien?"

Walter kissed her, "Just let me hold you for a few."

Paige smiled, "As long as you want baby."

Walter smiled, "Well then, we shouldn't have invited anyone over for dinner."

Paige laughed.

The Garage door opened and Cabe stepped in and Ralph looked up, "Grandpa!" Ralph ran over and hugged Cabe tightly.

Cabe smiled as he hugged him, "How you doing kid?"

"Good, Dad and I was just going over my homework." Ralph told him.

"Where is Walter?" Cabe asked.

"In the kitchen with Mom," Ralph smiled.

Cabe laughed, "Great, so much for dinner being on time."

Ralph laughed as they moved into the Garage. Cabe saw Sylvester was watching the video of them in the warehouse and he reflexively reached back and rubbed his head. He clapped Sylvester on the back, "Hey Sylvester."

Sylvester never taking is eyes off the video, "Hey Cabe."

* * *

**Greetings readers! I think there is just one chapter left for this story. To the Adventure! -Tim**


	19. Chapter 19

Walter greeted Cabe as he rolled back out of the kitchen and wheeled on over to his desk to continue going over Ralph's work with him when his desk phone rang. "Scorpion Computer services, Walter O'Brien speaking." Walter answered the phone.

Sylvester's head came up as he looked at Walter, with a tear in his eye at the change in the company name.

He stood up and walked into the kitchen and saw Cabe kiss Paige's cheek, "Smells good kid, what are you making?"

"Beef Braciole for us, Italian vegan stuffed peppers for Allie." Paige answered with a smile.

"Uh, Paige," Sylvester looked at her with a tinge of pain on his face.

Paige looked up and frowned, "What's wrong Sly, don't you like my Braciole?"

"Oh no, I like it a lot, it's," Sylvester looked at Walter on the phone, "Scorpion Computer Services?"

Cabe smiled, "I think someone has some guilt." Cabe clapped his hand on Sylvester shoulder as he walked out to Walter's desk.

Paige nodded, "Walter decided to give you guys what you wanted and turned Scorpion into just a computer services company. He decided if you guys want to be the big problem solvers he's just gong to let you."

Sylvester swallowed hard, "But I was hoping maybe we could reconcile our issues and maybe regroup as Scorpion."

Paige shook her head as she continued preparing dinner, "Doubtful, you have no idea how hard it was to get him to not cancel dinner on you. You guys hurt him far more than you think when you left and then to open a competing company to expressly put Scorpion out of business. I was fortunate enough that Walter's love for me allowed him to look past my involvement in Centipede. Which I was really upset about when the truth came out that you guys weren't 'trying to help' Walter but actively trying to destroy his life's dream since he came to this country. And to be honest with you, if Walter actually had other friends besides you, I never would have encouraged him to try and be friends again."

Sylvester looked at her, pain on his face, "But, you helped set the company up and helped us secure our first jobs. Why are you getting a pass?"

Paige looked up, "Sly, you guys knew how distraught I was over what happened, I kept telling you I wasn't ready for any of that but you kept pressuring me, preying on my vulnerability, I had more than enough money saved back that Ralph and I would have been fine until I could get my head on straight. Then you guys conned that $10,000 out of me to start CP. And Toby hypnotized us. Part of me could accept it in the view that it would be to help Walter, but the whole time it was a lie, you didn't even tell me what your endgame was with CP and that was before he hypnotized us. But when it became clear that helping Walter wasn't what you guys really wanted and that you all were relishing in his pain and the destruction of Scorpion that is when I was finally able to break Toby's control. I'm sorry if you think that it is some kind of double standard but it isn't the same thing at all. Walter may say I didn't do anything he needed to forgive but I did by not being strong enough to resist the manipulations of Flo and you guys."

"Maybe I should just go then, this might have been a bad idea." Sylvester looked up at the ceiling.

"Sly, you are welcomed to be here, you can leave if you want. But if you want any chance at being Walter's friend again then I suggest you stay and deal with any feelings you're having. Walter won't likely extend another invitation if you walk out, again." Paige told him.

Walter wheeled back into the kitchen, "No, you didn't do anything that you needed my forgiveness for love. You thought you were doing something to help me; it's not your fault that you were being manipulated. Now maybe if you had known the truth and kept working with them then we'd have to talk about forgiveness, or at least a spanking." Walter smiled as he stopped next to her and reached over and pulled her back into his lap and kissed her.

Paige grinned with just a little wickedness on her lips, "Promises, promises. Who was on the phone baby?" Paige asked as she kissed him.

"You should have an email shortly for a job bid. Funny how as soon as your back people seem to want my help again." Walter smiled.

Paige nodded as she got up from his lap. "Personally I think it's all the free advertising we've gotten from the news running that video of you over and over. Sara called yesterday to ask if they were ever going to stop."

Walter smiled, "Well you can believe that if you want, I still think it's because you are back, where I want you forever."

Paige smiled and bent over and kissed him, "No other place I would rather be."

Walter turned around, "Sylvester, I just don't understand. I get that you felt hurt at what you believed to have been a slight on my part, but you know what Paige means to me. No one else means as much to me as Paige does, just like a few months ago no one meant as much to you as my sister did. So why you would think I could ever want anything to do with Flo is beyond my understanding. It would be like me accusing you of loving someone else while my sister was alive. And then to actively want to start a company to destroy mine, to ignoring how Paige was feeling and not only pressure her into helping you guys, you conceal the truth of what you really wanted to do just to increase your chances of getting her onboard to help accomplish it. What did I ever do to you to deserve being treated in such a manner? What did Paige ever do to you to deserve to be manipulated into helping you? She's always been there to support you. As I said in my hospital room, if it wasn't for the way you treated her I could forgive you, but I can't look past that. It's going to take time and proof that I can trust you again. If you want to try and demonstrate that then I'm willing to work with you to try and salvage our friendship."

Sylvester nodded, "I'm not sure I can adequately explain, I'm not sure I even understand it myself. But I really am sorry for my role in hurting you and manipulating Paige. I'm also going to see to it that Paige gets her money back, the money that we used to set up CP with, I'm just waiting on our first client to pay for the work we did. But I am willing to do whatever I can to prove to you both that I am sorry and I want to prove you can trust me again."

Walter looked back at Paige and she smiled, and Walter nodded and reached out his hand, "To new beginnings."

Sylvester smiled and took his hand, "To new beginnings."

* * *

"I can't believe this, Collins really screwed me over. I still can't believe what I did on his behalf, or what we did willing." Toby told Happy as they sat down with their take out.

Happy nodded, "I know we had some issues with Walt, but why did we just walk out on him Fungus?"

"I'm guessing because we just let things build up instead of trying to talk to him in a constructive manner, and because he wasn't listening to our advise about Paige." Toby told her as he took a bite of his sandwich.

"Yea, but Walt's always been this way and he seldom takes advice from anyone. Why was this time different?" Happy asked before taking a drink of her shake.

Toby shrugged, "My head hurts too much to try and figure that out. Did we really start our own problem solving company?" Toby asked.

"Yep, Centipede Partners, Sly finished our first job, we got two more programming jobs already lined up, we got several jobs waiting to hear back if they accepted our bids." Happy told him.

"You think we can really do this? Without Walt or Paige I mean?" Toby asked.

Happy shrugged, "Not sure it matters if we can or not, it's what we have now. Pretty sure Walt isn't going to welcome us back to Scorpion with open arms anytime soon. I'm not even sure why I was so mad at him today. First time I'd seen him since that night we walked out. And after Dr Anning help us through the hypnosis I can't even blame it on what Collins did to you. Sly might have a chance of becoming friends again with him since he got them to invite him to dinner tonight. Obviously Paige succeeded in being forgiven."

"Maybe I should call him and see if he would be willing to meet up, maybe at Kovelsky's for some of that nasty fermented fish he likes so much." Toby suggested.

* * *

"Hey Paige, this might not be a good time to tell you but time is short on it so I need to ask. Did you still want to go to Freddie's funeral?" Cabe asked as he walked back into the kitchen as he put up his cell phone.

Walter's head whipped around, "Freddie's funeral, what?"

"Oh Walter, I'm so sorry, with everything else, we forgot to tell you baby. Freddie died from the gunshot wound." Paige told him as she wrapped her arms around him.

"Freddie was shot?" Sylvester asked.

Cabe nodded, "When Collins kidnapped Florence. He tried to stop him and Collins shot him. My buddy at the VA just called and said they finally got all the forms back from his family so they can give him a proper burial now. They're going to do it at 10 AM tomorrow. I can swing by and pick you up if you still want to go."

Walter nodded his head, "I'd like to attend, Freddie was a good man."

Paige nodded, "Yes he was. This whole area feels so different without him. He helped to keep it a little safer."

Their time together and dinner had been a little more subdued after finding out about Freddie; Walter had grown to really care about the man. He wasn't surprised to learn that he had been a military man; he'd always had that bearing of discipline. He was quiet, unassuming, grateful, and strong; he tended to always take those who were new to the streets under his wing. He'd help them find a relatively safe spot to sleep, show them around to the places that provided food or clothes or even a shower and machines to wash their clothes.

* * *

He lay awake in bed all night with Paige curled up along his left side, he couldn't believe the last time he saw Freddie was applying pressure to his stomach trying to stem the flow of his blood. He couldn't even remember if he washed it off or not but then he seemed to remember Ted asking him about it and he replied that it belonged to Freddie and himself. So much happened that day, and Cabe had been running interference for him keeping the news crews away from him since he woke up, but they kept running that video of him leading them through the warehouse of traps.

Paige's hand resting just over his bladder finally forced him to slip out from under her and he sat up at the side of the bed to use the urinal and used the baby wipes to clean up after and lay back down. Paige was quick to resume her position half atop of him and Walter just smiled and he hugged her to him. Paige had worn an old tank top to bed and the side of it revealed a generous portion of the side of her left breast and Walter wasn't immune to that and he smiled as his fingers found their way down to gently caress her exposed skin. As Paige's body began to respond to those soft caresses there was a soft knock on their door and Walter closed his eyes and shook his head. He pulled their blanket up and made sure Paige was covered. "Come in," he said softly.

Ralph walked in, "I had a really bad dream, you were in the hospital still and your body wasn't responding to the antibiotics and your organs were shutting down." Walter smiled and held his hand out and Ralph walked over and took it in his.

"I'm sorry you had that dream buddy, but I'm doing better every day." Walter smiled at him.

Ralph nodded, "Would it be okay if I just lay next to you for a bit?"

Walter looked, "There isn't a lot of room without waking your Mom."

"I can lie on my side, please?" Ralph asked.

Walter nodded as he flipped the cover back and Ralph climbed in with his back up against Walter's side and his head on Walter's arm.

Paige opened her eyes and gave Walter a soft kiss, as Walter looked at her he saw her mouth, "Thank you." Walter smiled and nodded as he hugged her tighter.

* * *

Walter sat beside Paige in the cemetery Cabe was on her other side, Cabe's friend and then Sylvester sat next to him with Happy and Toby sat next to him and Ted and Florence next to them as the Navy chaplain gave a short eulogy listing a good number of achievements of Freddie from his time in the Coast Guard and then Cabe's buddy from the VA got up and gave a short eulogy of Freddie after he left the service and concluded with a special outreach that was being sponsored by a local philanthropist to help homeless vets in the LA area in honor of Freddie.

Six former service men in full military dress from the local VFW stepped up along the casket and ceremonially lifted the Flag off of the casket and solemnly folded it sharply. Finally it was passed to another who turned and stepped formally over to Walter and held it out to him. Walter sat there with tears in his eyes as the man knelt down and waited for him to take it. Paige leaned over with tears running down her face, "It's your honor to accept this final token of a grateful nation to this fallen hero."

Walter looked over as his lip quivered, and he nodded as he reached out and accepted the Flag as the man put it into his bandaged hands and then he stood and saluted Walter and the Flag as everyone else stood, and the service concluded with a 21 gun salute as his casket was slowly lowered into the grave while taps was played by the bugler. As taps came to an end the man slowly lowered his arm.

Cabe's buddy stepped over with a special triangular wood display case and opened it and Walter looked through eyes of tears and Paige leaned down, "Its okay baby, the case is for the Flag." Walter nodded and reached out and with shaking hands inserted the Flag into the case and the man closed the case and locked it and gave it to Walter.

As typical for such events the weather was overcast and with the ground being a little soft they experienced some difficulty getting Walter and Ted's chairs back out of the ground until the guys who folded the Flag came back and they bodily picked Walter up in his chair and carried him out of the soft ground and out to the asphalt of the small road that ran through the cemetery and sat him back down. They walked back in and did the same for Ted and as they sat Ted down by Walter, Walter told them, "Thank you guys so much, if you guys have time I'd like to at least buy you lunch for your service both in the military and for what you did here today for Freddie." Walter told them.

They all smiled and thanked him but they had other things they had to do. Walter nodded but gave them each his business card, "Whenever you aren't busy, call me, I'd like to thank you."

"Hey, I wouldn't mind a lunch. I wanted to talk with you anyway," Toby spoke up as Cabe started to push him towards his SUV.

Walter looked up at Paige and she just kind of shrugged, Walter looked up at Cabe, "Do you have time to do lunch with us?"

Cabe nodded.

"Fine, we'll meet you at Kovelsky's." Walter said as Paige opened the back door for Walter.

Paige looked over and saw Florence starting to push Ted over to her car, "Ted and you are invited too Florence."

Florence looked back at Paige, shocked and she turned to look at Ted and he just nodded. "Thank you Paige, we appreciate that," Florence told her.

* * *

Lunch had started off a little slow, almost nothing but quiet whispers between partners when Florence seemed to take the first step, "Paige, that's a beautiful ring, is it new?"

Paige smiled as she nodded, "Walter proposed to me. I don't know why to be honest, all he had to do was tell me yes."

Walter looked at Paige puzzled as Cabe broke out laughing. Walter looked back at him almost offended. Cabe wiped tears from his eyes as he continued to laugh, "Lord, I almost forgot about that. That night as we got to visit with you fresh out of surgery Paige proposed to you laying there completely out of it. Said if you wanted, all you had to do was wake up and say yes."

Walter looked back at Paige, "Really?"

Paige nodded, "But, I'm keeping the ring."

* * *

**Greetings dear readers, I hope you have enjoyed this telling! It looks like the votes for Uncivil War story line was slightly more than the Knight story line so I'll look at continuing it next. To the Adventure! -Tim**


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